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Hope on the Move
June 30, 2010 – 11:01 PM CDT
Hope has not visited the feeding site since 9:15 PM on June 28. If we didn’t have the radio-collar on her, we’d be worried. We suspect that bringing the food to her is allowing her to explore more widely. This morning, she was still at the same white pine she was at last night, so she probably spent the night there. Back when we walked with bears for 24 hours at a time, we found that they typically went to sleep an hour or two after sunset and woke up about a half hour before sunrise. Most of their travel (and a couple naps midday) was during the day. Of course, bears that are trying to avoid people while seeking garbage or bird feeders often become more nocturnal, but that doesn’t apply to little Hope. The only time she was seen in a yard (May 25) was late afternoon, and she ran as soon as she was spotted. In fact, she traveled 2 miles back to the area where she and Lily had spent the spring.
Today, Hope moved 0.46 miles south to another area she had visited with Lily. If she traveled in a direct line, she may have fed on the many raspberries lining the route. This evening, she was at the exact tree where we had found her with Lily on May 29. The navigational abilities of this young cub are somewhat of a surprise. Not entirely, though. In earlier studies (back in the early 70’s), we noticed that little cubs that accompanied their mother on a trip 20 miles outside their usual territory remembered the distant location and returned there as independent adults—the only bears from that study area known to travel there. We found that out when two of the cubs (a male and a female) were killed by hunters there and their ear-tags were turned in. The new methods and technology show so much more these days.
An interesting feature of Hope’s location this evening is there is an old den there that would fit her, and it looked like she’d been in it from the fresh dust on leaves outside the den. If it wasn’t her, it was somebody else. Another thing the new technology and methods are showing us is how early in the year bears check out den sites. The earliest we know of is July 19 when we videotaped June digging the den in which she gave birth to her first litter that winter. We’ll see if Hope uses the den we think she checked out today. Interestingly, when we located Braveheart today to change her GPS unit, she was also near a den.
Now that we are taking Hope’s formula to wherever she goes, we’ll see if she begins exploring beyond the area she learned with Lily.
We visited Lily today and found her sleeping alone in early afternoon—no sign of a male.
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