Daily Updates
Action in the Enclosure - UPDATE May 2, 2016
02 May 2016
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The day started with Pond Chatters spotting 3 snowshoe hares taking advantage of the grass growing around the pond. I don?t know if they are always in the enclosure Snowshoe hare
Snowshoe hare

or if they come and go through the fence. Lily Fans captured them close-up with the Pan-Tilt-Zoom camera.
Ted was down front for awhile, then Lucky and Holly, who still show what looks like youthful exuberance, both in the pond and then in their white pine play tree as a Lily Fan captured in this 6-minute action video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6v4JFxXkzw&feature=youtu.beThinking of Honey, I looked at the 41 pictures of her in the 2016 calendar. So many good memories of so many aspects of her life. Rolling playfully. At the rock den where she invited little Lucky to join her. With her big plastic donut she shook to get food out of. Contented with Ted in mating season. Praying on a rock. In morning mist. With her red ball. Drinking, with her reflection reflected in the pond. Close-ups of her face. Plowing through the snow. Actually playing with Lucky after their winter together in the rock den ( I didn?t know anyone had caught that). Honey with her beautiful fur after she was done shedding, sitting in a snowstorm. In her familiar window den. I don?t know how Jim Stroner gets such needle-sharp frameable pictures with such expression in the eyes. It?s hard to stop looking at a picture that seems to look back at you.
A Lily Fan asked what I thought of the story of a growling bear being shot in Minnesota.
http://www.kaaltv.com/news/black-bear-killed-euthanized-chatfield-minnesota-fillmore-county-sheriff-dnr-/4124125/ I have never heard a black bear growl, although many people say that have. I believe that if people are afraid, anything a bear says will be interpreted as a growl. I?m glad I?m giving a talk on black bear language at the International Bear Conference in Anchorage, Alaska, this coming June 12 (a Monday) in the afternoon (talks at 2:40 PM and 3:45 PM) . Also, our Gordon Burghardt is giving a talk on the beginnings of play as revealed by our Den Cams at 3:25 PM that day.
Finally, an excited phone call at 8:31 PM. A resident had just spotted Shadow and her cub Spanky. Shadow made it into another year. She is 29. She can proudly say that (through 2015) over 225 descendents have been born into her clan, including 26 offspring of her own. The 225 descendents include five generations (e.g., Shadow, June, Lily, Faith, and Faith?s sons David and Allen). I suspect we?ll see more fifth generation cubs this summer.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center