Charlie Brown’s New Look, Welcome Returnees, Tasha Digging - UPDATE July 8, 2022
Charlie Brown on 5/20/22
Charlie Brown has been showing off his new look in good sun. First on May 20 in his full brown winter coat.
Charlie Brown on 6/13/22
Charlie Brown on 6/13/22
Then, 24 days later on June 13, he has lost the brown fur on his face, chest, and front legs but still has short brown fur on the tips of his ears.
Charlie Brown on 6/27/22
Charlie Brown on 6/27/22
Two weeks later on June 27, he’s lost most of his brown hair on his front shoulders, sides, and back legs but still had a brown back and ear tips.
Charlie Brown on 7/422
Charlie Brown on 7/422
Finally, a week later on July 4, about the only brown he has left is down his spine, as is usual, and still some brown on his ear tips. We’ll see if he keeps the brown on his ears to make it easier to tell it’s him.
Missing females have been showing up. 11-year-old Daisy on June 30 and 13-year-old Summer July 3rd. We always worry in spring until the usual bears show us they made it through another fall and winter. The bears we are thinking about most right now are Lily, Ursula, and 23-year-old RC. We will probably be missing one of the big males. We recently heard that such a bear was killed on the highway at midnight on June 6. We just hope it is not one we know well.
On July 6, 13-year-old Star came to her usual feeding station to provide the end of her story of last spring. On May 15 last year, a car passed over Star’s two cubs, a female cub that wanted to lie on the centerline and a cub of unknown sex that followed mom as she ran into the woods. From back in the woods, I heard an anguished scream and wondered what was happening. That was the last anyone saw or heard that cub. The female on the centerline I gently carried and let go close to where the scream came from, hoping the mother would find her. She did, but we didn’t know it for nine days until Star came to a feeding station with little Haley as she was named. They came together just fine for three weeks through June 10. Three days later, Star arrived alone with a male following her. As with Lily and Hope back in 2010, one cub wasn’t enough to prevent the mother from ovulating and coming into estrus. No one saw the cub again. On July 6 this year, Star came in with two female cubs yet to be named.
Today, Tasha was digging vigorously as "Taught" caught in this 9-minute video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9kebWLOUfsI don’t know why. We’ll see if she goes back and digs some more. If she is digging a den, it is the earliest I know of by a little bit. It was July 19, 2004 when June dug the den she would give birth in six months later.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
