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Tasha?s Big Move, Do Bears Roar? - UPDATE July 15, 2016
15 July 2016
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In a well-planned and coordinated operation, the staff moved Tasha to her new pen between Ted and Holly. The move was complete with the staff putting together a 2-minute musical slide show of it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TuYgIAb_-g. Tasha
Tasha
The people carrying Tasha represented the volunteer Bear Educators (Carrie), other volunteers (Charlie Paulson), Interns (Kara Helgeson), and staff (Scott Edgett). At the end of the slide show is a parhelion (sun dog) that some people consider a sign of good change.
Tasha
Tasha
We believe this was a good change for Tasha, although she couldn?t fully realize it at first. When she exited the carrier cage, she sat down and warily looked around her. The area was filled with enough bear scent to make her cautious and very alert. She sniffed the tips of many branches like wild bears do when they want to know who passed there before them. In this case, it was Honey?s pen until a couple months ago, and other bears were nearby. After a bit, it seemed she realized that Holly was in the next pen and did a lot of huffing directed in that direction. She eventually walked around in the pen but was hardly interested in food. She continued sniffing branches, as on the balsam fir tree pictured. She had her toys. The yellow ducky is in one of the pictures. She didn?t seem wary of Ted, but Ted was just lying down being unobtrusive. Her focus was on Holly but seemed confident that the fencing would protect her. She never went scurrying up a tree. Then she got playful in an unusual way. It was if she was not familiar with dense vegetation. She leaped on it, smashed it down romping this way and that as one of the staff captured in a 26-second video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHGAqOgJo8I. Tasha
Tasha
I?m anxious to see how she behaves tomorrow after she has settled in a bit. I?m also anxious to see or hear about how she relates to Ted. Ted came to the front corner of his pen today, but his focus was on the 12-15 people.
Do bears really roar? I?ve been hearing that repeatedly since saying it about Samantha last night. I?ve never really heard a black bear growl, but sometimes their other vocalizations take on a throaty quality that could be confusing. The usual sound heard during fighting and other tense situations is what we call the pulsing upset sound. A very few times, I?ve heard a loud aahh sound as they threaten another bear. Samantha did that twice in the last few days and did it with an unusually throaty quality that sounds like a roar. Herring gull
Herring gull
I don?t have a tape of it. I heard it on the speaker yesterday, of course, and a couple days earlier I saw her do it as she lunged toward a bear with her muzzle narrowed to the extreme, making it briefly look tall and narrow. We don?t have the sound recorded because we hear it so seldom and happens too quickly and briefly for any human to hit the record button in time, although it makes me want to set a tape recorder out and let it run on calm mornings when Samantha is here along with other bears. I tried that this morning and think I caught a beautiful loon call for the Ecology Hall, but I can?t find it on the recorder.
Out the window, it?s hard not to respond when a gull sits for long periods looking at me expectantly.
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 2391062 times)