Juliet - March 9, 2014In Juliet's 2014 highlight videos, when the den shed was working well, we received about as clear pictures as we could ask for—plus action. It’s what we envisioned with the upgraded video equipment. At 3:52 PM, with the temperature at 29° F, Juliet wakes up, shakes off any bedding, moves toward the camera for a perfect view of her, yawns a couple times, and begins eating snow. The cubs are content. At 4:01 PM, she continues her work of yesterday on the log in the upper left of the screen and the log in the top center of the screen, shredding them into wood chips for bedding. The exposed cubs remain content at this temperature and enjoy a good nursing session when Juliet sits, letting them remain exposed.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6dYY0na2L8
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/121640740
Contented cubs nursing - March 9, 2014In the 2nd video, the contented nursing by all three cubs continues with a cub in full view. After lying down briefly, Juliet sits up at 5:56 PM and we see all 3 cubs. At 6:04 PM, Juliet may be performing toilet duty on the cubs after all the nursing. No squawking. The cub in the foreground has one eye partially open and the other still not open at all or maybe a slit.
At 6:06 PM, the cub with eyes fully open gently mouths a sibling—the first play we have witnessed with these cubs. It follows the pattern of beginning play when the eyes open.
One eye open - March 9, 2014At 6:50 PM, it’s time to settle down again. Juliet yawns, closes her eyes, and at 6:56 stretches and gives a perfect view of her spread claws toward the camera. By 7:07, the family is resting quietly with Juliet curled around them. The temperature is still warm. The lowest it will get this evening and night is 20° above F. As midnight approaches, Juliet is resting, the cubs are crawling around exposed, and Juliet moves to gently gather them in. Beautiful.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQYIpVWe-8U
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/121640741
Archives: http://www.bearstudy.org/website/research/2014-juliet-archives.html
March 10, 2014, the high for them will be 47°F—and 54°F the day after that. We’ll see what kind of action that brings—and we can compare that with what we see during March 23-27 when nighttime temperatures drop back to minus 16° to 24° each night
Honey moves to the rock den - 3/8/15Honey’s move to her old rock den was captured on video yesterday at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERpOjn9drkw&feature=youtu.be.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center