Lily - August 06, 2014Another bit of common advice we should have mentioned last night is about eye contact. People are often warned that eye contact might trigger an attack. We doubt if there is any data to support that. It sounds like more arm-chair speculation based on what some cats or dogs might do. Some dogs become shy or defensive if a stranger stares at them. Some nervous bears are sensitive to close-up eye contact and may defensively swat if a person locks eyes with them from a foot or two away. Blackheart was a bit like that, but her sister Whiteheart was not. Blackheart once showed harmless nervous bluster toward an unfamiliar woman who was calmly watching her from 10 feet away wearing mirror sunglasses. The other people sitting nearby were ignored. At distances greater than that, we’ve seen bears back away but couldn’t be sure if it was due to eye contact or other factors. We’ve never heard of anyone being seriously attacked because of eye contact.
The update last night led a Lily Fan to share some bear stories from his childhood. He wrote, “When you mentioned people encountering bears that ran one way while the people ran the other reminded me of my first bear experience when I was 5 or 6 years old. My grandparents embedded fears of black bears. Our property was a half mile from a town dump. One morning I was walking not far from our trailer by some blackberry bushes and saw a bear look up at me from behind the bushes. Fear overwhelmed me. I ran thinking I was about to get pounced on. When I turned the bear was gone, it ran away in the opposite direction. A small kid scared the bear as much as it scared me. Over the years, I camped there well over 100 times in a tent with food all around but were never bothered by them.”
Donna - July 26, 2014His story reminded us of a couple Black Bear Field Course participants who insisted on sleeping in a tent on the front deck. We thought the bears would investigate the new object, but one of the women said she has never had a problem tenting among grizzlies in Alaska and would be okay. She was right. Bear after bear walked by the tent as if it weren’t there. They were too busy working (ingesting food) to playfully bat the tent around.
Seeing the DNR’s decision yesterday made us feel fortunate we had nearly two decades of productive learning before DNR officials stopped it. The decision said what we expected it to say, “Dr. Rogers is not precluded from feeding bears or interacting with them. Education about them can continue. What he cannot do is radio-collar bears without a permit from the Department.” We had two thoughts—that our appeal could reinstate the Den Cams, and that the DNR put themselves in a difficult position by taking 16 statements out of the judge’s decision, replacing them with statements less favorable to us. Highly irregular. That and other things about the DNR decision (poor reasoning) make us optimistic about the appeal.
Meanwhile, we’ll forge ahead with research and education. We were slowed a bit on that today, though, by many calls from reporters asking about the alleged bear attack in New Jersey (a chance to teach) and about the DNR decision. Reporters from New Jersey had somehow already read the update from last night. Good Morning America tried to send a crew but found it was too far and too late in the day.
Tomorrow should allow better focus on the Hope Learning Center and Northwoods Ecology Hall. In looking through pictures for that, we saw two we particularly like of Lily and Donna. Lily looks like she is processing thoughts about what she is looking at. Donna bear the same.
Bear activity has dropped drastically. In a couple weeks, we’ll start checking old dens for re-use.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center