Lily and Shylow?
July 7, 2010 – 7:15 PM CDT
Hope was an easy to find and feed today. She continues to do well. We could see her up a large aspen off in the distance. She responded to “It’s me, bear” by climbing down, but she didn’t come directly to us. She circled way around us until she was sure, then she approached confidently.
Lily, however, has us scratching our heads. After reporting yesterday that her genital swell was receding, and after not seeing her with a male for days, we assumed that her attractiveness was over. Wrong. This morning, 423-pound Shylow was following little 172-pound Lily, who wasn’t sure it was a good thing. She ran in spurts, staying at least 30 feet ahead of him. Shylow showed signs of interest by intentionally brushing his scent on bushes and keeping his full attention on Lily. How long this will last, we cannot say. You’d think she would mate, go out of estrus, and stop attracting males, but this has gone on, off and on, for about a month. But, as we said before, after RC lost her cub, she was pursued, off and on, into August. We’re learning.
A little on Shylow, Braveheart’s brother. Shylow is 8 years old, burly, and one of the gentlest males. Not always, though. Somehow, he incurred some nasty facial scars in past mating seasons. The last weight recorded for him last year was 576 pounds on August 10. Now he reappeared after an absence of nearly 11 months with no clue as to where he’s been. We can’t radio-collar this very trusting bear because his neck is larger than his head. When we say 'trusting', we mean Shylow trusts anyone where he expects to see people, and he trusts researchers almost anywhere once he recognizes them.
As calm as he seems where he expects to see people, he is constantly on the lookout for anything unusual. We remember him being surrounded by 6 people who were loudly exclaiming what a beautiful, huge bear he was. Shylow was unfazed by the attention. Everything was as expected. People had always treated him kindly there. Then he spotted someone approaching a hundred yards away from an unexpected direction. He bolted. He wasn’t seen again for a week.
Today, he still had his winter coat, thick and lustrous, and a heart rate of 90 as he calmly sat 10 yards from Lily. When Lily resumed her travels, Shylow resumed his following.
How different this calm encounter with big, wild Shylow was from what people often assume about big males. People who fear bears commonly assume that males are especially fearsome if they are big, are courting females, and have lost fear of people. We haven’t seen any of that and we don’t know any basis for such thought except that the odd predatory bear is more successful in killing people if it is a big male. But in our 44 years experience, the usual assumptions about danger from big males are just further examples of thoughts that make “common sense” but not bear sense.
Thank you again for all you are doing to keep the Bear Center in the running for Chase’s $100,000 and to elevate the Wildlife Research Institute to that level. The race is scary. Some of the lower ranked organizations are roaring up as you and we look for more votes and find it is taking more votes than anticipated to stay in the top 5. We see your votes pour in and think how hard many of you are working to encourage people to help. We can only say thank you. You have become a force that’s making a big difference.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center