ARCHIVED WILDLIFE

eiguoc · **Posted:** Fri Jun 11, 2010 1:31 pm

June 11, 2010 (9:52 AM CDT) A check of the feeding site at 7:30 this morning found Hope climbing the same birch she was in the other day. It has a nice Hope-sized notch she likes to rest in. The trail cam showed no visits during the night, just Hope arriving at 7:01 AM. Her visits are irregular and we have not been able to pattern them. -- SM2 hours ago

eiguoc · **Posted:** Sat Jun 12, 2010 8:33 am

Hope continues to thrive

June 11, 2010 – 9:57 PM CDT

Hope - June 11, 2010Hope is growing.

We don’t know her weight but we estimate 20-25 pounds. She’s not sick so that’s not the reason Lily abandoned her. Our best guess is pure speculation that Lily had not yet developed a sense of responsibility as a parent. There are many stories of mothers being disturbed in dens and abandoning the cubs. Yet other mothers that are disturbed return. Lily was disturbed by bears and didn’t return. Are the bears that don’t return young bears, bears with especially fearful personalities, or is some other factor involved? We’re looking forward to seeing how Lily does the next time around.

eiguoc · **Posted:** Sat Jun 12, 2010 8:50 am

See how I do it if you can

eiguoc · **Posted:** Sun Jun 13, 2010 10:30 am

Hope progresses

June 12, 2010 – 9:41 PM CDT

Hope in maple - June 12, 2010

Hope is becoming more of a bear every day. While she is extremely cautious, going on alert at the break of a distant twig, she is making herself known. Today we watched as she scent-marked like a big bear. She straddled small bushes and walked over them. She stomp-walked, putting her forefeet down hard and sliding them. Yet, any potential danger starts her up a tree. She’s living bold, yet smart. She’s a survivor. She’s no longer emaciated. And she is growing. When she stood up today, we estimated her to be over two feet tall. Next time she does that, we’ll try to get an exact measurement.

Lily spent the afternoon a mile and a half southwest of Hope and is still there now (9:06 PM). Lily is no longer traveling widely. We need to check on her to see if that’s because she’s with a male or just foraging.

eiguoc · **Posted:** Sun Jun 13, 2010 11:12 am

a drake wood duck at turkey hollow

Little Whiskers at Upper Springs

eiguoc · **Posted:** Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:11 am

Hope is bigger than we thought
June 13, 2010 – 9:13 PM CDT

Hope standing - June 13, 2010

Hope continues to do well. Tonight when she stood up to bite a sapling (teething?), we snapped this picture and later measured from the ground to the tip of her nose—34 ¼ inches. That’s bigger than we thought. Seeing her every day, we didn’t notice how much she is growing. She is definitely no longer emaciated!

We examined her fresh scat and found she’s been sampling wild blueberries and American fly honeysuckle berries. Blueberries are still green but honeysuckle is beginning to ripen. Hope should do just fine once the berries really ripen.

Today, Lily approached to within 700 yards (0.4 mile) of Hope’s location. Sue went out to monitor what might happen if Lily continued and they met. False alarm. Lily’s GPS locations showed she veered sharply south. Lily no longer appears to be with a male.

eiguoc · **Posted:** Tue Jun 15, 2010 10:02 am

Hope continues to forage

June 14, 2010 – 9:42 PM CDT

Hope pawing at log - June 14, 2010

We don’t think Hope could be doing better under the circumstances. She is eating the formula, grapes, nuts, and mealworms we put out for her twice a day. In a taste test this evening, she went first for the mealworms, left those and ate all the grapes (2 cups), tried some formula, ate a cup of nuts, and seemed to be full. She pawed at a piece of wood, lay by the base of her red pine and pawed at the bark, and left. On the way out, we saw a log she had been working at for ants or grubs and found her dropping next to it. The scat contained ants, other insects, a fly, unripe Juneberry seeds, a raspberry flower, and other vegetation. It also contained a tiny, transparent clam shell. Hope is exploring and learning wild ways.

Deer flies are out now. They bite hard. When one buzzed around Hope, she batted at it as it flew and swatted at it whenever it landed on her ears or face. Other bears do this, too. They know the buzz and the bite of deer flies and horse flies. It’s a case of eat or be eaten. If they do catch one, they eat it.

Strangely, mosquitoes and black flies are almost nonexistent this year—probably because April had no snowfall and only a trace of rain.

The picture shows the brown patches on the backs of her ears. She is starting to lose them, which is a sign she is beginning to shed her short (about an inch) soft cub fur. She will replace it with longer adult fur.

eiguoc · **Posted:** Wed Jun 16, 2010 5:31 am

Not worried

June 15, 2010 – 8:07 PM CDT
Last evening, we were with Hope at her feeding station 7:30–8:30 PM. Hope walked off before the food was gone so we left the remaining few ounces of formula and nuts—figuring she would be back later. The trail camera shows Hope returned at 8:54 PM and promptly ‘adjusted’ the camera angle. With the camera off-kilter, we don’t know for sure if Hope finished off the remaining food, but it’s likely.

Just after 10 PM, June appeared at the feeding station. Although the food was likely gone, there was plenty of food scent, plus Lynn, Sue, and Hope scent remaining. The trail cam caught June marking the ground with her feet, and defecating at the base of the red pine. June was only around for a few minutes and it’s likely Hope was in a tree nearby and aware of June’s presence.

This red pine is one that June used as a bed tree with her second litter—the Lily, Cal, and Bud litter. Lily chose this area as part of her own territory shortly after family breakup in 2008. She and Hope used this bed tree extensively earlier this spring and we will learn whether Lily has given up this area to Hope. She certainly has avoided it so far. June mostly avoids the area, but occasionally passes through—so this visit by June is not entirely surprising. Such is the matriarchal society of bears.

About 3 AM, five hours after June’s visit, little Hope ventured back to the feeding site and checked out the scent and scat of June. We don’t know for sure what her reaction was—the trail cams take still images only every minute—but we do know Hope did not return to the feeding site today.

Cautious Hope may keep her distance until she gets extra hungry. Hope is in very good shape so she can go several days without eating if she has to. At this moment (8:02 PM), June is 2.2 miles southwest of Hope, and Lily is 1.6 miles northwest. We’ll see what the trail cams show in the morning. When Hope feels safe enough and hungry enough, we think she’ll be back.

However, we have formulated a plan in case she doesn’t show up overnight. We’ll map the main bed trees in the area so Gordon Buchanan can set up camera ‘traps’ in an effort to locate Hope.

Thank you for your continuing support of our research and educational efforts.

—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center

eiguoc · **Posted:** Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:26 am

Hope has been off foraging
June 16, 2010 – 11:22 PM CDT
Hope showed up on the trail camera for the first time today about 1 PM and then returned to the feeding station about 8 PM while we were there waiting for her. We had picked a few wild strawberries for her on the walk in to the feeding station. She seemed to recognize the berries and quickly polished them off. She then tried a nice black cherry but dropped it when she saw the pecans. But she dropped a pecan when she saw the mealworms and cleaned those all up before touching anything else. She gave a couple licks to blueberry pie filling (brought as a test) and then concentrated on the nuts for a long time. When she lost interest in the nuts, she checked her empty formula bowl. We filled it. Twice. She didn’t quite finish the second bowl. She produced a dropping that contained a few mealworms and grape skins (both eaten around 1 PM) as well as ants, ant pupae, and crayfish parts.

The collared research bears are mostly foraging in the older clear-cuts where the stumps and downed logs provide abundant ant pupae. June is a couple miles southeast of Hope and Lily was a mile southeast of Hope when her GPS quit working. We don’t know where she’s at the moment and will have to give her a new GPS tomorrow. We hope she’s fairly accessible.

catwoman · **Posted:** Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:17 pm

Pat, thanks so much for posting these daily updates on Hope. I check here every day to see what she's been up to! :thanku

Beth · **Posted:** Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:38 pm

catwoman wrote:

Pat, thanks so much for posting these daily updates on Hope. I check here every day to see what she's been up to! :thanku

Yes, I do the same... :thumbegg:

Thanks Pat!!

Beth · **Posted:** Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:27 pm

I found the New York Wild squirrel site on a different link with a larger pic.

I think it is mommy and maybe 3-4 babies :cloudnine:

Maybe this is MoM *Hazel(hazelnut) ~See info above~

eiguoc · **Posted:** Fri Jun 18, 2010 9:19 am

Hope is more independent

June 17, 2010 – 10:19 PM CDT
Shadow - June 17, 2010

Hope is not a cub that keeps a schedule. She is too busy exploring and foraging. This morning, we expected she would come to the feeding station about 7 AM. We waited over 3 hours before giving up. After we left, the trail cam showed she came for 9 minutes from 10:54 to 11:03 AM. We expected her for an evening feeding about 7:30 PM. We waited an hour in a gathering storm and gave up. The trail camera showed she arrived 20 minutes after we left—making us wish we’d waiting a bit longer.

On one hand we are delighted she’s showing less dependence on our supplements, and it’s happening sooner than we expected. We’re anxious to get another dropping to see what she’s foraging on. On the other hand, her independence may make it more difficult to collar her. We aren’t giving up though. We hope she will accept a radio-collar one of these days so we can monitor her travels.

eiguoc · **Posted:** Sun Jun 20, 2010 7:37 am

Hope finally seen again

June 19, 2010 – 10:26 PM CDT

After missing little Hope several times due to her irregular visits to the feeding site, we connected with her there tonight about 9 PM after an hour wait. She is fine. Interestingly, Lily still has not been back to that area since the breakup 18 days ago. Picture at right was captured by the trail camera yesterday.

There has been a lot of discussion and opinions about what we should have done with Hope. Some newspapers have been critical, depending upon their ideas of how research should be conducted. Our usual approach of simple observational science has ranked our research one of the four major studies of large mammals in the world. It has enabled us to senior-author more peer reviewed scientific papers on black bears than anyone else. Two of those papers were ranked by bear researchers and managers around the world as being in the top five most useful publications on bears ever written. Nevertheless, a couple years ago we were officially criticized for not going beyond observation. We were criticized for not delving into experimentation and hypothesis testing like most researchers do. Now, the separation of Lily and Hope has not only offered us that opportunity but required us to do exactly that to better understand their behavior, and we are criticized for intervening and saving Hope’s life. We know we can’t please all the people all the time. We work to do what we judge to be the best for the bears and what will best fill unknowns in the scientific literature based on our 44 years of research experience.

New situations sometimes require new methods to learn new things. We feel that the course we are following with Hope is the best for science and for her.

We heard the loud cry to let nature take its course and let Hope die. We rejected that from a scientific standpoint because we wouldn’t have learned anything we didn’t already know.

We heard the cry to place Hope in a rehab facility or give her a home in the Bear Center. From a monetary standpoint, putting Hope in the Bear Center would have drawn big crowds. But that’s not what drives our research decisions. Hope in captivity would have taught us very little.

As we see how things are working out, we are very happy we chose to give Hope a temporary hand so she can live in the wild. That is where she can best fill unknowns in the scientific literature. Already, she is helping us understand the separation. Eventually, she should answer scientific questions about nature versus nurture as it pertains to diet, denning, developing social relations, and establishing a territory. Or, a totally different scenario is possible. Lily and Hope could re-unite, hibernate together, and provide an explanation for the mixed-age litters that are reported. Lily will likely have cubs this winter.

Hope may be in the process of showing us something that can help other orphans. Typically, orphans too young to survive are placed in captivity, fed for a year, and then released back into the wild. But might orphans have a better chance of learning wild ways if they are left in the wild—aided only by temporary supplements until they can find wild foods? We’re testing that by temporarily supplying formula, grapes, nuts, and mealworms. Already, she is switching to wild foods and scent-marking her area as if to establish ownership. We hesitate to speak too soon, but it seems to be working. We do wish she would keep to a more regular schedule of visiting the feeding site so we could be there to gain her trust and radio-collar her. But it is also nice to see her behaving independently, ranging up to a mile and a quarter and depositing droppings filled with remains of wild foods.

Nothing a person can do is totally right or wrong. We can only wait and see how things turn out. Was it right to give Hope a hand? Her life will provide the final answer.

Thank you for your continued support of our research and educational efforts.

—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center

catwoman · **Posted:** Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:17 pm

Update June 22, 2010 – 10:17 PM CDT
Yesterday at 8:46pm
Lily returns

Hope arrives at feeding station - June 22, 2010
7:38 PM. Sue just arrived at Hope’s feeding site. Telemetry signals show Lily to be approaching. It’s the first time Lily has visited since she split from Hope in this area 3 weeks ago. The trail cam shows Hope came to the feeding site at 4:54 PM. We don’t know where Hope is, but her scent is present from her recent visit. Sue has the HD video camera and hopes to record Lily’s reactions to Hope’s scent and any interactions should Hope arrive. High anticipation here.

10:17 PM. Lily’s signal was very close but she did not come to Hope’s red pine feeding station. Instead she moved off to the west. I stayed until 10:00 PM but Hope did not come. I left some formula and a few grapes and pecans in case she visits the feeding station during the night. I’ll try again in the morning. —SM

We got a couple weights a few days ago. Hope’s Grandma June weighs only 197 pounds after traveling all over creation. Hope’s mother Lily is only 161 pounds. She probably weighed even less 3 weeks ago. Does her low weight explain anything about the separation?

Thank you again for stepping up to the plate for the challenge grant and for all the things so many of you have done to support the research and education with food, equipment, encouragement, and other ways. We appreciate everything so much. We have never had this much support, and it’s making a big difference, as you know.

—Lynn Rogers, Biologist, North American Bear Center

Beth · **Posted:** Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:24 pm

Thanks Nancy... :wink:

eiguoc · **Posted:** Fri Jun 25, 2010 11:37 am

Three Generations

June 23, 2010 – 8:16 PM CDT

Sue started the day waiting from 6 until 8 AM for Hope. It was Hope-less. Hope had been there at 3 AM to feed , and she doesn’t make social calls. When she comes to eat, she’s working. She’s beginning to trust us, but she has no real affection for us. She has her own wild agenda to occupy her mind. She has to forage and avoid danger. When she is at the feeding station, it’s take a bite and go on alert. The feeding station is at the base of a red pine she had bedded at with Lily. The feeding site is there so Hope can feel as secure as possible while snatching bites of supplemental food. Any unidentified sound and she is up the tree. The radio-collar should arrive in a week or so, but we don’t know if she will let us put it on her. She is a wary cub that doesn’t like to be touched. And there’s no way we will risk drugging her.

Lynn caught up with yearling Jewel (June’s daughter, Hope’s aunt) in a cedar swamp and found she has grown in stature but is very skinny. On her own, Jewel is probably spending a lot of time up trees instead of foraging. Lynn loosened her radio-collar a notch thinking of the ripening hazelnuts and berries. He also removed a number of engorged ticks and offered them to Jewel. She ate all but a small one that was scarcely engorged yet. Yearlings are vulnerable to ticks after family breakup because family members groom each other to remove ticks. The deer flies are abundant now in the open areas and a few buzzed around Jewel in the swamp, causing her to react, as bears do to these hard-biting flies. Lynn snatched one off her ear and showed it to her. She ate it.

Next, Lynn found Hope’s Grandma June bedded in a cedar swamp and replaced her GPS unit so we can get another 10 days of locations. June has been traveling a lot, probably exploring possibilities for shifting her territory to make room for Lily and Jewel to establish their territories in her old stomping grounds. Today, June seemed worn out and didn’t bother to get up until Lynn bribed her with nuts so he could change the GPS unit and get her heart rate (95/min). She was resting on a nice bed of moss with no deer flies around. Surprisingly, she had no ticks, even on places she can’t reach. We don’t know how she managed that.

Last but not least was Lily. Lynn finally caught up with her to check her milk and estrus status. Her breasts have nearly disappeared except for the nipples. All the lumpiness from the clogged milk ducts is gone. She wasn’t with a male, but her swollen vulva indicates estrus. She may be attractive on and off for weeks if she is anything like RC. RC once lost a cub in May like Lily did. Lily was intrigued with the smells of Jewel and June on Lynn’s clothes. After thoroughly smelling him from the waist down, she came back and did it again. She didn’t seem thrilled about it. Something else she wasn’t thrilled about was the deer flies bothering her. She was in an open area to feed and was contending with the usual deer flies. Seeing 3-year-old Lily right after seeing 9-year-old June made it especially noticeable how narrow Lily’s head is compared to June’s. Heads get wider with age and are a good way to judge full-grown bears from those that are still growing.

Will Hope come to the feeding site tonight? Time will tell. We’re limiting her ‘human’ exposure to just a few people at the feeding site. Data shows that habituation is quite specific to a location and somewhat to individuals. In all her independent travels, Hope has been spotted only once. That was a couple weeks ago along a river a mile and a quarter from the feeding site. She has stayed away from people other than at the feeding site. She will teach us a thing or two about habituation and its limitations. Habituation is a matter of stress and accommodation to new stimuli. Depending on where Hope settles, she may or may not get used to seeing people. As more and more people move into bear habitat, bears become more and more accustomed to seeing them and ignoring them.

eiguoc · **Posted:** Fri Jun 25, 2010 11:38 am

Lily is with a male

June 24, 2010 – 9:43 PM CDT

Hope fed at the feeding site last night at 9:20 PM. She checked back to find no food there at 5:11 AM today, then didn’t return again until 8:42 PM tonight. This picture of ripe Juneberries might explain why.

Hope’s radio-collar arrived today. Now we’ll see if she lets us put it on her. We’re very curious what she does and how far she travels between visits to the feeding site. We wonder how much time she spends foraging, escaping up trees, and why she is often wet when she arrives at the feeding site.

When we checked on Lily today, she was with a male. We didn’t see him at first. The first clue was that Lily wouldn’t look at us. She was only concerned where the male went. She cast about until she spotted him 40 yards away silently disappearing in the underbrush. Following her gaze, we saw him, too. Satisfied where he was, Lily relaxed and let us check her over. She is in full estrus.

We wondered who the male was. One-eyed Jack has been in the area the last two days, and we wondered if he was the suitor. Probably not. Jack showed up at the field station alone this evening. Now, near the end of mating season (except for Lily), Jack was no longer standing up and rubbing on trees although he stood up to smell a couple that bears often rubbed during the height of the mating season. He has his share of fresh wounds. Deep, swollen tooth punctures on his muzzle, cheek, and forehead are draining pus, plus an 8-inch diameter area on his back is scraped bare with no damage to the skin. We don’t understand that one.

Jack stepped on a scale to give us his end-of-mating weight—360 pounds, which probably will be his lightest weight of the year. Males lose as much or more weight during the 6 weeks of mating in late May and June as they lose during the 6 months of winter. Last year, he weighed 648.5 on August 30.

Jack is probably in his teens. He was already big when we first met him in August 2002. As is true for many big males (and contrary to popular thought), Jack is a mild-mannered bear that we feel comfortable being around. He is comfortable with us, too, so he gives us good data on mating when he accompanies radio-collared females we walk with. Jack is in one of the mating scenes in the full UK version of Bearwalker of the Northwoods. He is the male in the mating battle against Lumpy in that version of the documentary (and in the mating battle video on bear.org). Tonight, he was his usual mild-mannered self with a heart rate of 84/minute.

So we are still wondering who is with Lily. Tomorrow, Lily is due for a GPS unit change. We hope we can spot the male and identify him when and if we can catch up with Lily.

eiguoc · **Posted:** Wed Jun 30, 2010 7:00 am

Hope, Juliet, and Embarrassment

June 28, 2010 – 9:54 PM CDT

Hope - June 28, 2010

Hope’s radio-collar showed us one of her hangouts this morning—and it makes us wonder how a little cub like this knows. She was near the tip of a peninsula—almost an island, out of the usual bear traffic. She was looking down from a broad crotch 50 feet up a big white pine. She stretched and scratched, looked awhile, and eventually came down for her food. This evening, she was on the same peninsula but was at another white pine where she and Lily had bedded. Little Hope apparently retained a lot of information from her time with Lily. The fact that Hope is using some of the same trees Lily used might increase the chance of them meeting up, although Lily is not seeking the same kind of security for her resting spots that little Hope is. So Lily is not retreating to the tips of peninsulas and using secure white pines like Hope is. After eating, Hope played with sticks and bark at the base of her white pine (picture right). She looked relaxed but was totally attentive to any unidentified sound. A hummingbird hovered near, and the whir of the wings put her on full alert.

The radio-collaring last night took time. Hope was defensive. She is developing trust more slowly than most bears we’ve met. It could be her unusual circumstance, but we think it is also her personality. She seemed more defensive and less trusting than usual even when she was with Lily. There are too many factors to figure it out easily.
Hope’s radio-collar showed us one of her hangouts this morning—and it makes us wonder how a little cub like this knows. She was near the tip of a peninsula—almost an island, out of the usual bear traffic. She was looking down from a broad crotch 50 feet up a big white pine. She stretched and scratched, looked awhile, and eventually came down for her food. This evening, she was on the same peninsula but was at another white pine where she and Lily had bedded. Little Hope apparently retained a lot of information from her time with Lily. The fact that Hope is using some of the same trees Lily used might increase the chance of them meeting up, although Lily is not seeking the same kind of security for her resting spots that little Hope is. So Lily is not retreating to the tips of peninsulas and using secure white pines like Hope is. After eating, Hope played with sticks and bark at the base of her white pine (picture right). She looked relaxed but was totally attentive to any unidentified sound. A hummingbird hovered near, and the whir of the wings put her on full alert.

The radio-collaring last night took time. Hope was defensive. She is developing trust more slowly than most bears we’ve met. It could be her unusual circumstance, but we think it is also her personality. She seemed more defensive and less trusting than usual even when she was with Lily. There are too many factors to figure it out easily.

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