This and that
This and that
March 25, 2010 – 8:23 PM CDT
Lily continues to play with Hope—playful, gentle biting and lots of manipulation. This evening we watched as Hope really ‘engaged’ in the play—giving it back to Lily as best she could! Hope is becoming more and more coordinated each day and we’ll likely see the play sessions become more vigorous. We’ve been waiting for the day when Hope would respond to Lily’s ‘manhandling’. We’ve caught glimpses in the past few day but this evening was the clincher—mother-cub bonding at its best!
More about Jo. She’s the 2-year-old daughter of RC, Lily’s cousin. Lily’s mother June and RC are half sisters, both daughters of Shadow, the matriarch of the clan we’re studying. Jo is a gentle sweetheart. It’s hard to get close to her in the woods until she’s sure it’s us. Then she’ll come and be perfectly calm for radio-collaring, taking her pulse, and checking her over. One thing we checked her over for early last summer was ticks, which soared in number after family break-up when her mother could no longer groom Jo and nibble off the ticks.
Jo is too young to have cubs, but could have them in January 2011 or 2012, depending upon food. She lives 2-5 miles from any feeding station and we likely will not see her until after the spring foods wane. The early spring greens are a succulent bonanza of easily digested nutrients. Once the leaves mature, many of the nutrients become incorporated into the cell walls as cellulose, secondary compounds build up, and the leaves become less digestible and unpalatable. Unless ant pupae are abundant as a result of a warm spring, the period of maturing leaves becomes a period of hunger and possible nuisance behavior for many bears until berries ripen in July. That’s when many bears in the study area visit feeding stations rather than becoming nuisances at garbage cans or bird feeders, as may happen where there are no feeding stations. So June is when we expect to see Jo again and put a radio-collar back on her. Two people have volunteered their 6- and 7-year-old relatives to crawl in the culvert and retrieve the collar Jo left behind in her flooded den.
Plans are firming up for Lynn to fly to New York to be on NBC Today for 4 minutes starting about 48 minutes into the program on Monday, March 29 and to be on the Martha Stewart show on Wednesday, March 31. Animal Planet is looking for other venues for Lynn to help promote ‘Bearwalker of the Northwoods’ before it airs on Animal Planet as a Wild Kingdom episode April 4. Lily appears in it several times. She’s the yearling that walks toward the camera in deep snow during the introduction. She’s the bear who puts her paw on Lynn’s head in the only attempt by a wild bear to play with Lynn. She’s one of the yearlings nursing in a scene with Lynn prior to family breakup. She’s the bear snuggled with her mother June when Big Harry comes on the scene at the moment of family breakup. And Lily is the bear chased and bit by June the day before hunting season.
Someone asked if clan members hang out with each other. Not much. Mostly they become competitors for territory. Slightly to the contrary, a mother allows her male and female offspring to remain in her territory. The young males eventually disperse. The young females often carve out part of the mother’s territory as their own. To accommodate, the mother often shifts her territory away, usurping part of the territory of an unrelated neighboring female. Despite that, when mothers encounter their daughters, they are more vigorous in expelling them from that spot than they are toward other bears as you can see in the documentary. Males do not hold territories and are a story for another time.
Den cam video of Lily and Hope might be helping mothers and cubs in dens in Alaska. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is reducing the bear population to help moose. As part of that, they have permitted the killing of mothers and cubs in dens. In the fight to stop this, groups are using Linda Gibson’s video clips of Lily and Hope from YouTube. Thank you to Doug Hajicek, Sylvia Dolson, WildEarth, Pix Controller, White Wolf Entertainment, and everyone involved in making the den cam happen. Thank you to all of Lily’s Facebook Fans for making this a phenomenon that can help bears. Sylvia wrote “If you think hunting sows & cubs in the den is moral or ethical, please take a moment to watch this live den cam: www.bear.org/website/lily-a-hope/live-den-cam.html and the video highlights www.bear.org/website/lily-a-hope/den-cam-video-clips.html”
The grizzly/brown bear viewing trip to Katmai National Park is filling up despite our listing the wrong telephone number. John Rogers (no relation) of Katmai Coastal Bear Tours (www.katmaibears.com) has received deposits from 6 people, leaving only 2 spaces to fill. His real phone numbers are 907-235-8337 and 800-532-8338. He had interest from another couple but is waiting for a deposit that would make the trip full at 8 people. John will give half the proceeds from this trip to the Bear Center—nearly $20,000 if 8 people sign up. If there is enough overflow, John has one other trip open and that is a 4-day trip July 6-9 for $3,750. He would give 25% of the proceeds from that trip to the Bear Center—about $13,000—if the trip fills with 8 people.
We have long thought of collecting people’s bear encounters for a book. 92,000 Facebook fans might hold the key. The stories need not be long or exciting. Something as simple as “I saw a bear and it ran away” would be okay, fleshed out with the location, what you were doing, etc. Just the fact that it’s a bear is enough excitement. We’re thinking of the stories being short, like a paragraph or a page or two. Next, we would need someone to edit the stories a bit possibly and design the book. We’re imagining that the book might be used as bedtime stories. The book will contrast with hunting magazines because it will not be a lot of hype and danger—just stories of real bears. Most of the stories will likely be of benign encounters and end by expressing the feelings the people have about the experience. It will also contrast with newspaper stories that usually talk about bear encounters as problems that must be dealt with before something terrible happens. The book will be about what happened, not about what the person was afraid would happen. Just good factual events and the person’s feelings about it. If you want to contribute and give permission to publish your story, email your story to
Nuts are arriving daily. Many thanks. And thank you for your continued contributions, purchases, and support. Your purchases this winter made it possible for the Bear Center to move the website to a dedicated server to better handle your very welcome traffic. With your help, the future of the Bear Center looks brighter and brighter.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center