Big Changes - UPDATE January 5, 2016
June by Pine - July 30, 2012
June by Pine - July 30, 2012
The pictures show the current stage of upgrading the North American Bear Center. The circle of bricks will contain a forest camping exhibit. The big post will become a white pine with a backpack hanging from it. We are excited. A lot of thought went into this, and now it?s coming together with the help of your donations and ideas.
Two of the candidate pictures for the upper wall are these pictures of Shylow and June. Shylow began as the most shy of Blackheart's three cubs born in 2002 (Braveheart, Valiant, and Shylow) but then became trusting at the Wildlife Research Institute (WRI) as a 2-year-old. He was seldom seen elsewhere and would slip away when anyone, including us, approached him in the forest, living up to his name. We never saw him in the forest but enjoyed every visit to this trusted, safe spot of ours. Most hunters avoided hunting near the WRI during the first 16 years of our study. That changed in 2012 after Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Landwehr told us he was angry over our letters asking for protection of radio-collared bears and began trying to end our study. The DNR then joined with a local bear hunting guide who surrounded the WRI with hunters. Other hunters put together a pool of money to divide among hunters who shot radio-collared bears as is shown in the BBC documentary ?Lily, a Bear With a Bounty? BBC Natural World 2014 A Bear with a Bounty 720p HD. The second year (2013) of DNR involvement in ending our research by having hunters kill research bears, I talked to an excited hunter as he came out of the forest well after dark on the fourth day of hunting season (September 4, 2013). Using a crossbow, he had shot a ?huge? bear as it was getting dark. He was very disappointed that he couldn?t find it in the dark. We know that a bear hit with a crossbow arrow can travel far and survive for hours. Shylow had been coming in well after dark, which should have kept him safe because legal hunting ends at 8:13 PM. Forest camping exhibit in the works at the NABC
Forest camping exhibit in the works at the NABC
The night before, 11-year-old Shylow had come in at exactly 10 PM and weighed 649 pounds. That was the last time we ever saw him. Shylow?s picture will be up as a private memory of this gentle giant that had my complete trust, and vice versa. While trusting, he remained wary. I remember him sitting in his safe spot surrounded by 6 people. That was normal and fine. Then he peered through the people and saw a person out of place. A person was approaching on the driveway over 200 feet away. That scared him. He bolted and was not seen for days here.
The bear standing up against the white pine is our research partner June. Born in 2001, we began walking with her in 2004. On July 19 that year, she showed us how early some bears make dens. The video is in the Bear Center, as is a 68-pound rock she rolled out of the den. She didn?t get it out on her first try. She then gave us a glimpse into her mind as she dug away the dirt that had made the entryway too steep. With a shallower slope, she rolled the rock out of the entrance. She went on to show us more about black bear life than we thought we?d ever see. You saw her in the video a couple nights ago licking water off her daughter Lily after the family was temporarily flooded out of Lily?s birth den in March 2007. A hunter shot June on September 27, 2013 under the guidance of the DNR, as was revealed in the court hearing of 2014. In that hearing, the Conservation Officer who helped set up the killing admitted what he did and admitted to lying to us about it the next day to conceal his role in the killing.
Shylow - August 18, 2013
Shylow - August 18, 2013
We feared for Lily this past fall and very much appreciate Lily Fans? donations toward the food that we believe saved her life. While hunters were in one place, Lily was safe in another and is now safe in a den with her three cubs that will turn one year old later this month. We would love to put a Den Cam in the den and are waiting for a response to our DNR Permit Application. We believe Lily?s habits will keep her safe in the future, and we will continue our efforts to follow her hibernation behaviors via Den Cams. The Court of Appeals backed us on using Den Cams, leaving no credible reason for the DNR to block us in the face of the court. We are reserving a place on the upper wall for Lily and her family.
At the Bear Center, Honey got up for a stroll today. Unlike the others there, she often gets up during the winter.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
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Topic: Jewel and her cubs (Read 2382559 times)