Enjoying the viewA highlight today was a great talk with a state representative who strongly supports us and is against the bear feeding ban the DNR is again lobbying for among legislators.
With the scarcity of natural food creating hungry bears, we saw a news broadcast that showed an official saying, "If it's nuisance bears that are attacking garbage cans and are coming close to people, we want people to notify us and notify the DNR so we can take appropriate action if we have to, to make sure nobody gets injured." The broadcast was illustrated with an old picture of one of our radio-collared bears from years ago bedecked with ribbons.
Baiting went into full swing today with the same guide that surrounded this area the last 3 years again setting up baits in the same places, marked with his name.
On a positive note, the documentary "Lily, A Bear's Life" will be on Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) Channel 2 Wednesday evening (August 26) at 8 PM bear time.
With the September 1 deadline drawing near when we will be without Volunteer Co-Coordinators, we are hoping to fill the joint positions from within our talented volunteer ranks. But with the deadline so close, we are seeking help in filling the position also from outside if we have to. Toward that end, we are offering a $100 referral bonus to anyone who refers an outside candidate for one of the Volunteer Co-Coordinator positions and that candidate is ultimately placed in the position. If you refer two outside candidates and they both fill the positions, you will receive $200.
We had reports of Faith, Ursula, Donna, Braveheart, and their cubs at various feeding stations today. Lily recorded her presence on a trail cam a few miles away. We continue to get reports of one of the motherless cubs.
The bears do seem hungry, in fact so much so, when Braveheart was trying to feed nose to nose with her old mate Jack, he yelled at her. Usually any rebuff would come from the female, especially when she has cubs like Braveheart does. Jack is in the Bearwalker movie from 2008, he is filmed copulating with Braveheart. In another year Braveheart left available males that were pursuing her to move to an area where she had previously mated with Jack. Like with June and Big Harry, the same bears often mate time after time, which makes us wonder if Jack might be the father of Braveheart's present litter. We are still waiting for DNA results from hair samples we have pulled over the years.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center