Mother’s Day
Update May 9, 2010 – 9:44 PM CDT
Today was a great day. It started with an outpouring of support from Lily’s Facebook fans. Sue treasured every card, and we all appreciated the contributions to the Bear Center. We wanted to come out and wave hello to you all through the pond cam, but we couldn’t get the group together to show the whole team with the Bear Center open and half the team having to stay inside to work. The great show of support for the research and the Bear Center from all the Facebook Fans lifted our spirits. It shows there are people that appreciating what we do and shows that our efforts to educate are being received. We’re making the Bear Center better every day and are looking forward to showing you all a very nice Lily and Hope exhibit when you come to the Lilypad Picnic at the end of July. Jackie and Jim Runions were there taking video that they’ve likely already posted.
Lynn took his wife Donna to lunch for Mother’s Day.
At 4 PM, the Bear Course participants arrived—4 from England and 4 from the US. They were greeted by little yearling Ty coming down from the white pine he had taken refuge in all day. The participants from the US had all been here before and were happy to see Ty on his own. They were anxious to reconnect with the other bears they knew. After supper and introductions around the table, we checked on Cal’s signal. He had been the same place all day, and we figured he’d dropped his collar. Then the signal turned active. Everything was okay.
There was another hour of light, so we all went to see what Lily and Hope were up to in the small area they had used all day. We saw where Lily had torn down an aspen sapling for buds. The area had an abundance of large-leafed aster, a major food now. Lily came to Lynn’s “It’s me, bear” but then ran to Hope when Hope cried in the distance. Lily returned with Hope, who stayed a bit away as we (the group) marveled at being next to what most people think is the most dangerous animal in the woods, a mother with cubs. She was calm with a heart rate of 88, trusting in the singsong “It’s me, bear” cadence.
Back to the Research Station and more bear observation. Bow and Cal appeared. Had Cal been with Bow all day in the small area Cal had spent the day?
The old participants were happy to reconnect with Cal, Bow, Ty, and Lily—and to meet Hope.
Tomorrow, a goal is to connect with June and hope Jewel and Jordan are still with her. Jewel has lost her collar. Volunteer Al Stoops made the long trek today to retrieve it from deep in the woods. We can see from June’s GPS locations that she is moving into a more accessible area. We want to meet up with her and put Jewel’s collar back on before family breakup. We want to track her movements relative to June after the two split. We also want to monitor when that split is in this early spring when Bow and Ty have already split. June and her last litter split on June 8.
Thank you so much for the generous contributions for Mother’s Day and for all your support.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center