Education
August 6, 2010 – 9:54 PM CDT
The research bears are doing well—eight are currently sending GPS data to our computers! Today we replaced a failed GPS unit on 2-year-old Jo (picture) and one on 8-year-old Braveheart. Braveheart’s unit had been transmitting for over 11 days and we knew it would fail soon. We watched our computer screen as she approached a road and were able to intercept her to replace her GPS before it failed. It’s great when it works out that way! Other times we’ve watched helplessly as a bear moved deeper into a roadless area knowing their GPS unit would fail before they were accessible again.
We are scrambling to get office work done before hunting season is upon us. The major project for the next several days is in support of the classroom outreach project so many teachers are making happen. With that kind of momentum, we don’t want to hold them up! Our current assignments from the group are to clear the way for major purchases for the bear boxes, put the poster exhibits from the Bear Center in a form that can be used for developing curricula, and create short videos on a variety of topics. This is all exciting to us. With the help of the teachers among Lily’s fans, there is the talent and manpower to create something very far-reaching. Along that line, we will soon videotape Lynn’s two lectures so teachers can put them in a useful form for curricula.
There is momentum on another front. Lily and Hope fans have put Bear Head Lake State Park in the lead for $100,000 in the Coca-Cola ‘Vote for Your Favorite Park’ contest by over 35,000 votes. Lily’s fans are a force to be reckoned with! Jen Westlund, the park manager, is thankful and says “The park staff has noticed and we are amazed!”
June's territory is partly in Bear Head State Park and she denned there the last 2 winters. Hunting is not allowed within the park boundaries, so we were relieved when June moved to the park on the night of the first day of the bear hunt in 2008. She was pregnant and headed off to den early. Pregnant females are generally the first to den and it's common to find them denned in early September. We're hopeful she will den there early again this fall.
Momentum is building on still another front. Lynn is working on his book whenever he can. After urging from Lilypad Picnickers, the working title now is “It’s Me, Bear: Daring to Trust Bears for Science.”
Thank you for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center