Courtship Begins
May 12, 2010 – 9:02 PM CDT
Lily and Hope fed on peavine and played today, as the latest video posted at http://www.bear.org/website/lily-a-hope/den-cam-video-clips.html shows. Hope made her motor-like hum as she mouthed young peavine shoots. Apparently, she enjoys eating! As usual, they are staying in a small area of maybe 100-200 yards in diameter, leaving minimum scent and avoiding contact with other bears.
11-year-old RC was seen today with 3 beautiful new cubs (see picture).
3-year-old Cal surprised us by moving nearly 12 miles south overnight. He rested today then began moving southwest from there this evening. Hopefully his GPS transmitter will continue to provide good location data for us so we can monitor his movement.
Little yearling Ty (Bow’s son) spent most of the day up a white pine again, staying out of danger as he adjusts to being alone. We’re wondering if June’s yearlings Jewel and Jordan are doing the same. We started into the woods to home in on Jewel’s signal and check on her, but it soon was obvious she was too far into a roadless area for us to get back out before dark.
Jewel’s mother June spent her first full day without yearlings moving less than we would have expected. Like Jewel, June is in an inaccessible area. We wonder if her short movement means that she has already attracted a male.
This is also Braveheart’s first day without yearlings, and she has already attracted one of the biggest males in the area—One-eyed Jack. And they didn’t move far, either. Jack was Braveheart’s mate for her last two litters and maybe the litter before that. Braveheart is not ready to mate yet, but Jack has always shown patience, and he is not likely to get run off by another male. The year when Jack patiently followed Dot, he stayed with her for 9 days, and we’re sure he is willing to invest that kind of time into Braveheart. Jack is hardly interested in food. Instead, he sniffs branches, droppings, and tracks, spending time at each location to get all possible information about the bears that passed that way. He leaves scent wherever he goes. He walks down saplings—letting them slide under his belly to leave scent, including urine. He stomps and slides his paws on the ground as he walks. He rubs his back and neck and crown on tree after tree. He is a busy boy. It is no wonder males lose as much weight in mating season as they do over winter.
Today the North American Bear Center began an Amazon ‘Wish List’ at http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html?ie=UTF8&type=wishlist&id=1NJEEMJ2I3TXV. We hope to add more items in the coming days.
Thank you for your contributions.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center