At the WRI, fun-loving 3-year-old Fred continues to initiate play with bears twice his size, sending us scrambling sometimes to check the catalog for their identities. 
Fred and playmate on 6-29Here both bears, young Fred on the left, have their ears in the spread play position with mouths open, inviting play. The big bears let Fred bowl them over and get on top to scramble around. Mike Johnson caught this picture a couple days ago.
Then, the last couple days, cute little gray fox pups are coming out of their burrow that they took over from a woodchuck that was living under the boiler shed. Both fox pictures the pup and a parent, were taken from the front deck where they are used to seeing people. The mother paused for a look at the clicking photographer, Debra Gibson Isaacs, author of the bio that will go in the 50-years-of-research exhibit at the Bear Center soon. She also caught the picture of the cute pup that was first seen a couple days ago.
 Gray fox |
 Fox pup |
The woodchuck had to move over to the garage. I wonder if we will see any woodchuck babies this year with the mother being forced to move when her pups were very small at best. There will be many eyes watching the situation soon as the first Black Bear Field Study Course begins on Sunday in less than a week.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center