Holly, Lucky, Mouse, Bear Courses and a Book - UPDATE December 17, 2015
Mouse in Lucky and Holly's den
Mouse in Lucky and Holly's den
The mouse is making Lucky and Holly?s den partly its own. The red arrow points it out.
In the Lucky and Holly snuggling video of a couple days ago, Lucky gave Holly the sweetest look. He put his nose close to her and extended his tongue ever so slightly. That?s his gesture of friendship. Ted does it more openly, sticking his tongue out far as we?ve seen in videos and as behind-the-scenes visitors sometimes see. If Ted comes to the fence making his friendly high grunt and I put my face close, his tongue comes out far. With Lucky, his tongue comes out ever so slightly, just beyond his lips, as in the snuggling video. It means the same. Ted is more demonstrative.
Work today was toward a presentation as part of Dr. Steve Stringham?s panel. Something that has been missing in every Bear Conference I?ve been to is how to read a bear. Without that knowledge, bears represent fear of the unknown. Learning their language helped me get over my fear. Without that knowledge, people misunderstand and shoot bears. People won?t coexist with animals they fear. Steve is the founder of the Bear Viewing Association. I know that when Black Bear Field Course participants learn black bear language it leads to a deeper experience. They say it is life-changing. Steve and I will be making presentations on the topic. Steve will be talking about brown bear language and I?ll follow him with a presentation on black bear language. Should be good for bears.
Treasures of the Golden Bear
Treasures of the Golden Bear
Speaking of the Black Bear Field Courses, I forgot to mention that the course schedule is up and ready for registration on bearstudy.org.
http://www.bearstudy.org/website/field-study-courses.htmlSpeaking of Stephen F. Stringham, PhD., here?s a bit from his most recent book ?Treasures of the Golden Bear?
?As Bril looked deeply into the grizzly bear?s eyes, a lightning bolt of rediscovery arced through her body, making it tingle as she laughed with utter joy. For this was not just another animal, but a fellow being ? a mind, within the skin of another kind. A creature marvelous and mysterious and endlessly fascinating as anything from another galaxy, filled with an amazing intelligence of which few people had any inkling. A mind that might serve as its species? ambassador to humanity, providing unique glimpses into life as seen through ursine eyes. But only if she could learn to communicate with it. Only if this particular bear could be saved from the trophy hunters hot on its trail and if she could outwit the bandits willing to torture her to learn where the bear had uncovered a fortune in gold. Only if appreciation for the wonder of non-human intelligence could overcome the savagery of mankind?s paranoia and greed.
The odds she faced were enormous. The bandits were powerful, ruthless men, skilled in violence. She was none of those things. No one would expect her to survive, much less to win. But neither would anyone have expected David to vanquish Goliath. Lacking the weapons of coercion, she would prevail with the wit and poise and character learned from her mother, Russian Princess Suchovsky, and with the fighting tactics and wilderness skills learned from Wolf, her Yurok Indian father. So begins Bril?s life-long fight against callous exploitation of sentient animals and Indigenous peoples across the globe, as recalled through a slide-show on her 100th birthday.?
After writing six technical books, Stringham created this novel to reach a broader audience with his observations of bear behavior and ecology, some of it quite unique and fascinating. Although the story is fictional, Stringham states that it is historically, culturally and scientifically accurate. It was inspired by the Native American heritage of human-animal kinship, and by Steve?s decades of living in Native communities and with wild bears, wolves, foxes, and moose. Nearly 400 of Bril?s ?slides? appear in this book as B&W thumbnails. Color enlargements can be seen in the eBook edition and on Steve?s website
http://www.bear-viewing-in-alaska.info/Bear_Books_and_Videos.html.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
Author
Topic: Jewel and her cubs (Read 2389452 times)