Re: Lily and Hope - The Black Bear and Cub

**whitestarling** Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:21 pm

Thats great news on both fronts. Lily & Hope, and 3rd place with $100,000 lets hope it continues to be good news
WS

Anne-Marie1981 Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:59 am

Wow! Bit of a rollercoaster ride while I've been away then!! Here are the updates:

Update July 14, 2010 – 9:20 PM CDTShare
Thursday, 15 July 2010 at 04:39
Busy foraging

pincherries are abundant
The progression has been interesting.

The first day of Lily and Hope's reunion, Hope made sure they stayed together, but Lily seemed less caring. Lily actually seemed annoyed by Hope. We're assuming this was a day of shifting hormones for Lily.

The second day was marked by intense play (a form of bonding) and nursing (with milk already). Both Lily and Hope were observed initiating play and they seemed to be truly enjoying each other.

Yesterday, the third day, they settled down to serious foraging. Also yesterday, Sue photographed an abundance of ripe pincherries, a favorite food, along a forest road in their area.

Today, Lily and Hope apparently found those pincherries. According to Lily’s GPS readings, they spent over an hour in that very area. It's a good berry year, especially for pincherries and chokecherries, and the heavy rain today should make it even better.

We’re still reeling, thinking how a couple of you discovered that the Bear Center and the Wildlife Research Institute were in the Chase contest, how you let all of us know, and how you worked so hard for the boost you secured for each of the nonprofits. Thank you again for all you do.

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

Anne-Marie1981 Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:59 am

Update July 15, 2010 – 5:43 PM CDTShare
Friday, 16 July 2010 at 02:20
Lily and Hope Traveling

Lily's half-sister Jewel - July 15, 2010
Lily is leading Hope into areas Hope hasn’t seen yet. Lily is doing her usual wide travels, and Hope sticking with her. While radio-tracking Lily and Hope to change Lily’s GPS unit, Sue ran into yearling female Jewel, Lily’s half-sister from June’s last litter. The last time we saw Jewel, she looked pretty ratty. We don’t mean to disparage the appearance of rats and mean that only in the sense of having areas of thin fur. Jewel was shedding her winter fur then. Now she has a beautiful, shiny new summer coat and is a handsome bear. The only remnants of the old coat are some long hairs down her spine. Those are the last hairs to be shed, giving her a Mohawk look as if her hackles are raised, which bears don’t do.

We are hearing your suggestions for more ways to vote money for the North American Bear Center and Wildlife Research Institute.

On July 1, we tried to enter the Pepsi Refresh Everything competition. They opened for entries at 12:01 AM Eastern Time and filled their quota of a thousand entries by the time we tried to enter at 12:03 AM ET. We’ll try again on August 1 at 12:01 ET.

We have tried to join the American Express Take Part competition (http://www.takepart.com/membersproject/vote), but after submitting the Bear Center twice now at the button “Suggest a charity,” it hasn’t shown up on their list of entries. We don’t know what we are doing wrong.

Thank you for all you are doing.

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

Anne-Marie1981 Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:00 pm

Update July 16, 2010 – 8:16 PM CDTShare
Saturday at 02:43
Lily & Hope, Facebook, Classrooms

Lily and Hope are behaving ever more like a family. As the video from today shows, Lily is pulling down cherry trees, and Hope is diving in to help eat them. Lily is opening logs, and Hope is diving in to eat ant pupae. When Lily tries to play with Hope at inopportune times, we have never seen a feistier cub. Hope lets mom know to lay off when a hungry cub is trying to eat. But she won’t let Lily out of her sight. The video is online at http://www.bear.org/website/lily-a-hope/den-cam-video-clips.html.

8-year-old Shylow - July 16, 2010
Handsome Shylow (Braveheart’s brother) stopped by briefly today. We’ve seen him off and on the last few days after an absence of 11 months. He is readily identifiable with the distinctive bite out of his ear. He knows us and would readily let us radio-collar him, as we did when he was younger, but now at 8 years of age his neck is bigger than his head. Males with big necks should not be radio-collared, especially in fall when they are heading into hibernation. Tight collars can prevent bears from hibernating in the normal position. Unfortunately, without a radio-collar we have no idea where he disappears to for up to 11 months. From what we’ve learned from other bears, it could be up to 126 miles away.

The Facebook page is having growing pains, and we’ve been listening to your viewpoints. Some say the administrators delete too many posts and some say the opposite. Hitting the middle ground is difficult. Guidelines are needed. The administrators are trying to come up with guidelines like others on public message boards but revised to fit our situation. With passions so strong for the bears, disagreements are inevitable. We hope good guidelines will make good discussions. We are supportive of the administrators and their attempts to create workable guidelines. At the same time, they and we are exploring other options to make things even better. It’s hard to know exactly what to do except to keep trying. This is all so new for all of us.

On another note, we’re looking for a volunteer to gather input from teachers and assemble their comments. When a volunteer is in place, we’re hoping teachers will share their thoughts on how the North American Bear Center can improve its outreach to classrooms across America. We also hope to get some idea how many classrooms are following Lily and Hope and the updates.

Thank you again for all you do to further our research and education efforts. The treats you are sending for the Bear Center staff each week make all of us feel well cared for. The fresh nuts you are sending through Nuts Online are extremely helpful in taking heart rates, doing examinations, changing radio-collars, and changing GPS units every few days. The new combination of GPS data sent to Google Earth on our computer together with direct observation as needed is providing better data than ever. Thank you again. You know all you are doing to support the research and further our educational efforts.

We are looking forward to the Lilypad Picnic and the chance to meet and thank as many of you as possible.

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

Anne-Marie1981 Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:00 pm

Update July 17, 2010 – 9:50 PM CDTShare
Sunday at 04:14
A Data Day

20-year-old Shadow - July 17, 2010
Some days we can’t get out in the field. GPS locations accumulate and have to be downloaded for analysis. Weights and pictures of bears accumulate in the scale program and have to be deciphered and filed while we can still remember who was here on which dates, and their distinguishing features.

Today was also a day of building a network of teachers to help expand our educational outreach to classrooms across America.

And today was a day of starting an intern, Jason Sawyer, who has Bachelor of Science degrees in Wildlife Ecology and Forestry. He also has a background in Geographic Information Systems. He will help assemble data on habitat use by June, Lily, and Hope and how it relates to forest management practices. We noticed that GPS locations from these bears showed disproportionate use of areas with a particular forest management history. We want to examine the data statistically. These areas with a more open canopy have an abundance of raspberries, blueberries, and other sun-loving berries, as well as ant pupae. Telling the whole story with numbers is a big job.

Then curiosity overcame us about Lily and Hope. Yes, they were still together. But an hour later as it got dark, they were nearly a quarter mile apart. We’re monitoring their movement and anxious to see how things turn out by morning.

Along the way, we ran into the elusive Shadow, Hope’s graying 20-year-old great-grandmother. She will let familiar people come near where she expects to see people, but she is rarely even glimpsed elsewhere. She has had more opportunity than any bear in the area to learn to trust people, but she typically remains elusively in the Shadows, hence her name.

Thank you for all you do. We’re looking forward to meeting many of you in less than 2 weeks at the Lilypad Picnic.

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

Anne-Marie1981 Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:01 pm

Update July 18, 2010 – 10:21 PM CDTShare
Yesterday at 04:37
Back together

During last night, little Hope moved to an area Lily had spent time in yesterday. Hope spent the night up a tree there—scared. When she came down at 7 AM, she constantly scanned off in the woods as she hesitantly descended. She showed all the signs of fear--huffing, snorting, snapping her jaws, moaning, blowing, and slapping the tree trunk. These are the signs of fear that many people misinterpret as threats and shoot the bear as an aggressive bear.

Hope spent the next 9 hours searching for Lily except when she ran into the scent of other bears. Then she climbed trees. Hope ran into the scent of a mother with 2 cubs and immediately climbed. She did the same when she ran into another mother with 3 cubs. Actually, the mother with 2 cubs had a missing third cub that was bawling for her at 8:30 AM. By 3:30 PM, that cub had tracked her down and rejoined her a half mile away. We wonder how common temporary separations are between mothers and cubs.

Lily nursing Hope - July 18, 2010
Hope didn’t find Lily until 4 PM. At first, Lily ran away from Hope, who followed bawling. A quarter mile on, Lily turned aggressive toward Hope, chasing and treeing her 3 times.

Hope was persistent. Lily relented, and by 5:15 PM, they were playing and nursing. After a play session, Hope wanted to nurse. Lily readily rolled over to let Hope climb onto her chest as the picture shows. Hope relaxed and nursed while her mother scanned the surrounding woods for possible danger.

At 9 PM, they were bedded down together for the night.

Observing Hope through the day, it was amazing what a different cub Hope is without her mother. Alone, Hope is hyper-vigilant and fearful. With Lily, Hope is confidant and much more relaxed.

Thank you for your contributions and all you are doing.

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

https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=6638406&op=1&view=all&subj=472273489477&aid=-1&auser=0&oid=472273489477&id=263755115498

Anne-Marie1981 Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:02 pm

Update July 19, 2010 – 9:45 PM CDTShare
Today at 04:20
Back to Normal

Lily and Hope rest in a birch - July 19, 2010
Hope and Lily are together. Hope is not as frantic as before. The two bears just hung out, playing hard. They traveled and produced scats full of berries, but we haven’t been able to analyze the scats fully yet. New video from today posted at http://www.bear.org/website/lily-a-hope/den-cam-video-clips.html.

Elsewhere in the bear world here, Juliet is ending the day with all three cubs after being separated from one of them for a few hours yesterday and one of them a couple hours today.

RC, the 11-year-old aunt of Lily, also was separated from one of her cubs for several hours today. In both cases, the cubs tracked down their mothers, bawling, like Hope did when she got on her mother’s trail. Temporary separations of mothers and cubs like this are fairly common.

So, an eventful day ended up peaceful for all.

Thank you again for all you do. Every week when Lynn stops in the Bear Center there is a new treat to help devour with gusto. The shed looks terrific even before being painted.

And we all are on the verge of something big. Teachers are enthusiastically emerging to create a major outreach to classrooms. We believe that making factual information about bears readily available to classrooms will displace the current teaching of fear and misconceptions. There is a huge and urgent need for teaching factual information, starting with pre-schoolers. People must learn the truth about bears if we are to achieve any semblance of coexistence. People will not coexist with animals they fear. Misconceptions are the bears’ enemy.

You have become a major force for bears. Many of the teachers among you have become passionate for bears after watching Lily and Hope. They have much to offer. Together, we will create teaching units appropriate for various grades in accordance with state guidelines, also called GLE’s (Grade Level Expectations). With the help of Lily and Hope’s followers, truth will win out over misconceptions. Bears everywhere will be the winners. This outreach will initially be to classrooms in English-speaking countries but eventually will be translated into other languages. A group of teachers is beginning this effort by developing a form for teachers to fill out and submit with basic information. More to follow.

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

I adore this picture!!
https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=6649007&op=1&view=all&subj=472774204477&aid=-1&auser=0&oid=472774204477&id=263755115498

Anne-Marie1981 Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:04 pm

And here are the two video clips! First one dated 16th July