Lily and Hope - The Black Bear and Cub

The stars themselves.

SM

I've bookmarked the den cam so I will be keeping an eye on them

What an absolutely brilliant programe tonight. I though it was fantastic when Hope came over Gordens shoulder and started eating, then she was on his lap munching on treats. I know intervention is frowned on, but how any wildlife expert ot Animal lover could resist helping Hope I dont know. I'm not a complete Tree Hugger, and know that Animals have to go through life without our intervention, but there have got to be exceptions, and this was definitly one.
WS

What a great programme - I could watch it for hours, it's so lovely to see all the bears having followed their lives for the last year.

Really looking forward to tonight.

Lai

Update January 4, 2011 – 6:15 PM CST
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We saw ‘The Bear Family and Me’ program 1 and liked it. It tells the story well and should help bears. One nice thing about Gordon taking the lead is that it helps bears more than if we were doing it. If it were us, people would think only experts could do it. It says more about the bears if someone who knows little about bears steps in, doesn’t really know how to read them, makes mistakes, and is unhurt. Even the controversial bite scene, which was simple communication and not a real bite, left no mark. We were on the edge of our seats watching him do things we just wouldn’t do. Gordon was out of line, doing everything wrong, and he still emerged unscathed. It took us awhile to learn good bear manners that avoid stress for the bears. Watching Gordon showed us how very restrained Lily is. She is a gem that makes us want to work doubly hard for protection. Overall, the public should take away a better view of bears. We plan to show all four programs (including the very high def version of Bearwalker) in the theater at the North American Bear Center this year.




On the little thing that ran down into the bedding in Linda Gibson’s video, your consensus seems to be that it was an animal. We’re leaning that way, too. Best guess: a shrew (Sorex sp.). Of the five shrews around here, three are that small. Again using names listed in Mammals of North America (2002) by Roland Kays and Don Wilson, they are: Cinereus Shrew (Sorex cinereus), Arctic Shrew (Sorex arcticus), and Pygmy Shrew (Sorex hoyi). It couldn’t be a baby of any kind because shrews and mice breed only in spring through early fall around here.




Lily is doing a lot of rearranging of bedding. Last year, she had less bedding in the den and went outside to get more as she approached parturition. This year, she has plenty of bedding in the den and is gathering it up into a deep, fluffy bed in the back corner of the den. In the process, she displaced Hope from her snug spot behind Lily—between Lily and the back wall of the den. Lily seems to be taking over that spot. The way Lily is raking a high wall around herself, she will be immersed in insulation. Will the wall exclude Hope from Lily and any new cubs? Or will Hope wiggle her way back into her snug spot behind Lily? If she is behind Lily will she have a harder time accessing Lily’s nipples when Lily is hovering over her cubs with her head tucked under her chest to breath warmth on them. Will Lily respond mainly to the helpless cries of the cubs and ignore Hope? Will Hope show any motherly instincts this early in her life? We know new cubs in mixed aged litters have survived before, but is that the rule or the exception? We’ll be learning a lot together and have set up a schedule for Lily fans to record data as they did last year. We’re still looking for more observers to record data once a day for an hour. To apply to help with data collection, email bear.study1@yahoo.com.



Hope made plaintive noises today. Part of that might have been because she was displaced from her warm spot and wanted to get back there on this cold day. If it meant she wanted to nurse—which was the occasion for her more insistent noises a couple days ago—we were glad to see that Lily did not comply. That gives us encouragement that Lily won’t give in to sharing milk when the big supply comes in after parturition.



The wall of bedding makes it hard to see. We’ll be looking for ideas to remedy that on our visit there tomorrow. The electronic part Bill Powers sent to improve the sound arrived today. We will also attempt to fix the Pan-Tilt-Zoom camera mounted outside the den so we can control it remotely. At this point we can power it up but not control it to aim it at the den.



The little radio-collar on Lily is like a necklace. She could easily take it off like she did last winter. We’ll be surprised if she keeps it on.



At the North American Bear Center, Jason Sawyer’s Den Cam in Ted and Lucky’s den is proving to be interesting and we’re anxious to get it up and streaming over the Internet for all to see. Ted is breathing loudly, sometimes snoring, about twice a minute with some lapses between breaths as long as 50 seconds. Ted and Lucky periodically steal bedding from each other. For the most part, though, they are much less active than Lily.



Thank you for all you are doing.



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

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Lai

Thanks Lai thats a great update. I did wince when Gorden said he had been bitten, but as Lyn, and Sue say it just goes to show what a gentle lady Lily really is.
WS

Quite a few times I thought Gordon was a bit bold - they are still wild bears and should be respected as such

Lai

They are both tucked up, fingers X Hope has found a nice warm spot after Lily rearranged the bedding, still no sound so they have'nt fixed the mic yet


WS

I showed Pete the webcam this morning as he's been watching the tv programme as well - sadly Lily was sleeping

good to see they are both tucked up warmly WS - thanks for checking.

Lai

lots of activity just now - and I could briefly see both Lily and Hope

Lai

Thanks Lai just going to have a check myself
WS

Yesterdays programme was simply amazing, and like you WS I loved the bits of Hope over Gordons shoulder eating her grapes, just so cute. He has been very bold with what he has done but as Lynn says, it goes to show how tolerant Lily is and it was lovely seeing him gain some trust from Hope. I too am so looking forward to tonights programme and will be quite sad when it's finished.

Thanks for posting the update from Lynn Lai, it was good to read and I had a peek at the cam last night and saw both Lily and Hope The pictures you ahve posted are wonderful and I am so looking forward to keeping up to date with this next journey of Lily and Hope.

littlewid-x-

How wonderful was tonights programme but can't believe it was the last one. It was so sad to have the reminder of sarah though although it was gorgeous to see her, just upsetting to have the reminder that she was shot and at such a young age.
It does make the new den cam all the more exciting as we can continue to follow Hope and Lily a year down the line and hopefully some more little cubs, fingers crossed.
Gordon was one lucky man and I would have loved to have swapped shoes with him.

littlewid-x-

It was fantastic, and has'nt Hope bulked out, hopefully she's got enough wieght on her to survive the winter. At least Lyn, and Sue did'nt seemed concerned about her wieght. I think Lily was very lucky considering how close she had been to Sarah, when she was shot. That Hunter right up in the air in a hide looked really brave do'nt you think. Somebody aught to a have shot him Mrs S said
WS

Mrs S is so right WS. They think they are big men shooting bears but they have to do it from such a great distance and height.
I am glad that Gordon took that other hunter into the woods to meet Lily and Hope, I think that may have changed his mind about shooting bears and hopefully he will educate other hunters with a bit of luck.
If Lily does have cubs this year it will give us more bears to worry over when the hunting season starts again and more work for Lynn and Sue, I wished they had more volunteers to work with them, but as they have said, none stay the course. Wouldn't you just love to help them out, I know I would.

littlewid-x-

Going to watch the last episode tonight - but at least I know the outcome and we've been following Lily and Hope for the year

Lai

Great Pics Lai, shs's just snugged down when I've looked. Updates from yeasterday

I'm thrilled Hope is still suckling, and that she's back in the warm spot inbetween Lily, and the wall
WS

Thanks for posting that WS. I'm glad too that Hope has got her warm spot back and also that they are talking of repositioning the camera for better views, that will be lovely if its possible.
Isn't it also great to have another Charlotte, not that I am keen on Spiders but Lily and Hope have their own Charlottes Webb and Charlotte will make it feel like old times again but with hopefully a new birth.

littlewid-x-

Thanks for that WS I love these updates.

We watched the last part of the series last night, what a great programme - Gordon must have had a wonderful experience with the bears.

Lai

It looks to me as though Lily, and Hope are out of the Den this morning

Latest Update



WS

Great update - thanks WS

Lai

I was wondering what they were doing with the tilt and zoom camera they were previously talking about. Now I know. Thanks for the update WS.

SM

Lovely update WS. There is alot of snow there, looks like more than last year when we were following Lily. I hope they get the cam sorted so the views are good, we don't want to miss anything do we

littlewid-x-

Looks like Lily wants some privacy. She's moved the Cam


WS

Thats one smart bear WS. I've just had a look at the cam and it's still the same. Hopefully they will sort it out later.

littlewid-x-