Green-up begins!
April 17, 2010 – 6:40 PM CDT
Could the bears smell tiny leaves appearing across the forest? Is that why they began to roam? Now, today, the leaves are visible to us. At this stage, leaves are tender and digestible and have not accumulated distasteful secondary compounds. They are a bonanza for bears. We haven’t noticed the early favorite large-leafed aster yet, but it will emerge soon. The forest is at about the stage of green-up we usually see in early May.
The green-up prompted a visit to Juliet and her 3 cubs. Bummer. We found only her radio-collar. Checking the GPS locations on the computer showed she lost it about 8:20 PM last night. We’ll be keeping an eye out and are making calls to key people in her area. Hopefully we can locate her soon and re-collar her.
Lily is still at the same place as yesterday, according to the GPS locations she is sending to our computer, and we assume she still has her collar on. June and her yearlings are on the move.
An interesting thing about these bears is that they could be chowing down at people’s bird feeders and at a dozen bear feeding stations in the area. Instead, they all left their dens and headed for the deep woods. June and her yearlings are so far from any road that we couldn’t hope to catch up to them—especially if they happened to be moving away.
Lily moved away from the scattered lakeside cabins where she denned and is sitting tight with Hope deep in the woods. However, a new road into that area means it will be developed over the next couple years. We’ll follow the changes in bear movements as that occurs. Fortunately, the forest here is vast.
Lynn is still reading the birthday cards and would like to write back to so many who have touched his heart. Thank you for your continuing support in many ways.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center