Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:09 am
Posts: 1239
Location: Toronto, Ontario
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Better than we hoped
Update June 6, 2010 – 8:34 PM CDT
Hope sleeping in birch tree - June 6, 2010
After the emotional roller coaster of the past couple weeks, we’re a little on edge, even when things seem okay. We know how quickly things can change. So when we got to Hope’s tree and found her missing, we worried—even though the food was gone.
We went back 5 hours later and were relieved. There was little Hope sleeping soundly and safely high in a tree. The food we left in the morning was mostly gone. The red grapes and blueberries were gone. Most of the formula was gone. We had scattered more hazelnuts than she could possibly eat, so a good number of those were left, too.
Hope at feeding station - June 6, 2010
On the first trip, we had forgotten the card reader that lets us see the pictures from the trail camera. On the second trip, we at least had a spare SD card to swap. When we got back to the Research Center, we saw the story in pictures. Hope had been to the feeding site a couple times last night just after dark. This morning—even though we didn’t see her—she must have been close by. She came for the food 17 minutes after we left. She returned 2 hours later for more—carrying the container of mealworms around back of the bed tree where she apparently ate them. No wonder she was fast asleep when we arrived again at 1 PM! She barely stirred while we were there, but triggered the trail camera 5 times between 1:36 and 2:04 PM as she fed.
When we went to replenish the food this evening, Hope was nowhere in sight. We expect she was nearby and look forward to checking the trail camera pictures tomorrow morning to learn the story.
We’re looking forward to Hope answering so many questions as she grows up. Here are a few topics for starters.
Diet. Without a mother to teach her, will she have the same diet as other bears in the area? Actually, everything we have seen in our decades of research says that mothers teaching their cubs what to eat is a misconception. We’re aware of what’s written about that, but wait to see what Hope shows us. So far, hazelnuts and blueberries are the only wild foods we have given her. The rest she will have to discover on her own.
Land tenure. Will she eventually carve out part of Lily’s territory as her own as typically happens with females that stay with their mothers the full 16-17 months?
Travel. We know that a few mothers take their cubs on trips over 20 miles to oak stands and other food sources and that the cubs remember the best locations and return to them as adults. Will Hope travel long distances or be more a stay-at-home bear?
Social skill. Will Hope seek out other bears to wrestle and play? Personalities vary on this.
Hibernation. We know orphaned cubs can make perfectly good dens even though their mothers would normally make them. What kind of den will Hope make?
Relations with Lily. What will happen when Hope and Lily next meet? Will Lily chase her like a mother chases a yearling she has separated from? Will Lily welcome her like she did 5 days after the first separation but perhaps separate again? Will Lily try to kill Hope like some mothers have done to strange cubs they have found in their territory? Will Hope be afraid of Lily like Lily was of June (her mother)? Will Lily come across Hope’s scent, recognize it, but ignore it as something inconsequential to her new life?
Mixed age litter. It’s possible that Hope could rejoin Lily for hibernation. One set of yearlings that had separated from their mother in spring at the usual 16-17 months of age rejoined her in mid-summer and hibernated with her. Although that mother did not produce cubs, a possible explanation of mixed-age litters might involve mothers separating from a cub or cubs, mating, and then rejoining the cubs.
Being able to observe the study bears while being essentially ignored has answered so many questions. Now, GPS technology is adding detail to their movement data whether we are there to see it or not. The combination of GPS and observation opens the door to answering most behavior questions. Our GPS data is not stored in the collar for downloading months later. It sends the bear’s location to a Google Earth map on our computer every few minutes around the clock, alerting us to situations that require observation to understand. We are seeing details of bear life beyond anything possible before.
We need to get a radio-collar on little Hope soon. We noticed that some of you were worried what would happen if we put a radio-collar the size of Lily’s on her. You were right to worry about that. Hope would die with that big thing with its 5-year batteries plus a GPS unit. It’s not a problem for big Lily. For little Hope, we have one that weighs less than 4 ounces.
Actually, in our quest for kinder, gentler research, radio-collaring is a topic we’ve addressed. We’ve made adjustments in design to make the old collars comfortable to the point of being ignored, like a person wearing a watch, and we refuse to use some of the bulky new collars with so many gadgets that have not yet been made small enough for good use. We also do not put radio-collars on most big males because many have necks that are larger than their heads. That means a biologist would have to put a collar on so tight that the bears could not curl up into a normal hibernating position and would have to spend the winter with its head and nose exposed to den temperatures that are every bit as cold as ambient temperatures. Further, we would have to tranquilize a bear to put a collar on that tight, and we don’t want to risk the lives of bears by tranquilizing them. Instead of injurious traps and potentially lethal tranqulizers, we use trust and a handful of treats. We put the radio-collars on loosely enough that the bears don’t object. We don’t want to destroy their trust in us.
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memory challenged photographer owned by cats
Pat
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Good news today, thanks everyone!!
