April Weather, Action, Bears - UPDATE March 13, 2016
Big Harry - 7/12/15
Big Harry - 7/12/15
With temperatures in the 50?s and 60?s the last couple days, things are happening early. We wouldn?t expect this kind of weather for over a month yet. People are reporting robins a month early. Deer are already eating grass that has become available in forest openings. This mild winter, if it continues, should mean high deer survival, which could also mean another downturn in the moose population.
Beaver lodge
Beaver lodge
The snow has already melted from the beaver lodge, making it stand out from the boggy shore of Woods Lake out the window. One of these years, I?d like to put a Beaver Cam in it and watch them raise baby beavers (kits), broadcast to nature lovers, as usual. We had a camera in a different beaver lodge on this lake in the winter of 2000-2001, and what we saw was amazing?beavers, muskrats, mink, etc., all playing roles never before reported. I?m hoping to have Den Cams and maybe a Beaver Cam this coming winter (2016-2017).
Deer eating grass
Deer eating grass
At the Bear Center, Honey looked gorgeous with the great video we are getting now that the background snow is disappearing. A Lily Fan did a wonderful job documenting Honey?s walk in a 13-minute video at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp_fM--UhHY. Honey entered her old window den, ate grass beside the stream, and made her way back to her Chalet Den. She?s acting like a wild bear in mid-April. A Lily Fan rightly wondered if the snow feels colder on the bottom of her feet with the old foot pads gone. I suspect so.
In looking through old pictures for the Bear Center?s upper walls, it seems like Big Harry should be up there as Lily?s likely father and June?s mate time after time.
Colleen - 8/3/15
Colleen - 8/3/15
Another picture that stood out was from August 3 this past year when 12-year-old Colleen paid a surprise visit to the WRI. Her look as she enters the feeding area shows caution. She hadn?t been here for a decade. Like her mother Donna and grandmother Blackheart who lived here and eastward, she and her sister Dot expanded their range in that direction as adolescents. Except for the August 3 visit, we haven?t seen her here since. She is easily recognizable by her odd-shaped right ear. I suspect she is now in a den in her usual stomping grounds 3-10 miles east, nursing 2 or 3 newborn cubs that now have their eyes open and are beginning to play. We know two places Colleen frequents in the summer, and we hope to see her and her cubs with Black Bear Field Course groups this July and August. It was good to see nice Colleen here this past year.
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 2365149 times)