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Snowball, Bertha, Lucy, Jewel - UPDATE May 31, 2024

Jewel

Snowball and her brothers are more on their own now. The sibling togetherness we saw for several days after family break is waning. Yesterday, Snowball was with only one brother Cupcake with no Twinkie to be seen. Today, Snowball was cautiously on her own when I took her picture from the third floor deck as she glanced up hearing the clicking camera. Their 4-year-old mother Andrea is 0.8 mile away playing with and getting close with a male.

 Snowball looking upSnowball looks up  SnowballSnowball

2-year-old Bertha with her mange face that is growing hair back a bit attracted a male today. They played a bit, took a break that Bertha used to eat grass, and later ate peacefully together. I suspect we’ll see more of them together. None of us know who the male is. He seems too shy to be a regular.

 BerthaBertha  Bertha w/maleBertha w/male

8-year-old Lucy is still with her three female yearlings and as protective as ever. No bear is welcome near her yearlings. She just barrels at them, and they run, but she is wonderfully calm with people.

15-year-old Jewel put in an appearance a mile away in the neighborhood. She probably has her cubs tucked away up a tree somewhere. It is typical for her not to bring new cubs in to a feeding site on her first visit of the year. We suspect she’ll have things checked out and will bring them in tomorrow so the team can start determining their sexes. Jewel is showing the wide head of a mature bear, and she still has the bump on her nose that identifies her.

Here it is bears, bears, bears without a sighting of the fishers, foxes, and minks for a long time. It’s nice to see the bears, though, each with its own personality and history. Each one is an individual.

Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center


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