Concern hit strong when we learned there was a forest fire near the Bear Center and we might have to move the bears out of its way. We called the veterinarian, arranged their travel boxes, and waited as plane after plane flew over low, dropping water. A bunch of us stood in the smoke in the parking lot waiting to see what to do. People sent me pictures to tell the story. Someone posted this 3:24-minute video of planes scooping water and dumping it on the fire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVkpPcp648M
 Plane over NABC |
 Fire plane |
 Firetruck at NABC |
Sharon took a picture of Holly watching the sky, probably an airplane. A fire truck was in the Bear Center parking lot ready for action, depending on the wind direction. Then the smoke diminished. The hazy sky turned blue, and word came that the Bear Center was safe. Whew!
SteeleOn a lighter note, the mystery bears I said the team was working on are now identified. They are 5-year-old Stella and her lone male yearling Steele—sixth and seventh generation from Shadow. The distinguishing mark was light brown fur on Steele’s chin and neck. Nice bears. Stella started off the action by tearing after another bear and running it off. She then calmly returned to her yearling. They got on the scale and calmly shared food eating nose to nose. The team was amazing. I put out the word and soon had a picture of Steele and how he fit into Shadow’s clan as is listed on the clan sheet (https://tinyurl.com/mt7a97yu) that includes 439 bears, including cubs. The lineage, including dates of birth in parentheses, is: Shadow (1987), Blackheart (1997), Donna (2000), Shannon (2005), Summer (2009), Sadie (2014), Stella (2018), and Steele (2022). Nice to see that two more familiar bears made it through the winter.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center