Bearstudy - September 8th, 12-year-old Daisy (Shadow, RC, Bow, Daisy) added to the stream of mothers by showing up with three cubs, two females and a male. That leaves one more possibility, 5-year-old Chloe who is due for cubs this year, to show up and set a record of 16 clan mothers in a single year. Last year was a good food year, making it likely Chloe would have cubs with her if she shows up somewhere.
The picture Lorie took of Daisy is an excellent ID picture even if the ears are cut off. She was focusing on Daisy’s blaze and the line of white under her chin that we know her by. Nice.
No shots heard yet! Thankful.
Daisy 12 years, her mom is Bow born 2006, mother is Shadow
No Shots Yet, Bentley and a Porcupine - UPDATE September 11, 2023With no shots heard yet, our attention was on Bow’s one-year-old son Bentley who came in with a porcupine quill stuck over a half inch into the end of his nose. We hardly ever see a porcupine. I don’t know how he found one. We fed him while Mike Johnson used a pair of pliers to pull the quill out of his fast-moving nose pad, which he did as you can see. The quill was about 1 and 3/8ths inch long—not as big as it looks in the picture. Good job.
Bentley with quill in nose - photo by L. Kennedy
1 3/8" Porcupine quill - photo by L. Kennedy
Still no shots heard - Long Lost Jani is Back and a Splashing Good Time - UPDATE September 12, 2023We have not seen, or possibly not recognized, 12-year-old Jani here since she was a cub with Braveheart in 2011. That’s when Lorie Kennedy took her first Bear Course and took the picture by which we identified Jani a couple days ago. We suspect she doesn’t live near here because of the probable lack of visits and her two cubs (female and unknown) are the smallest of all the cubs here at this time. In addition to matching her cub picture, she acts like her mother Braveheart who had a habit of cruising the area to run off other bears as her cubs fed peacefully alone. Jani is a cruiser, too.
This sighting makes a record 16 litters for clan bears this year, and we are still keeping our eyes peeled for Chloe and hoping to identify a mother that is so shy she is probably not a clan bear. The 16 mothers are now: RC (24), Donna (23), Summer (14), Jani (12), Daisy (12), Sadie (9), Lucy (7), Luna (7), Sallyann (5), JM (5), Olive (4), Kaiya (4), Arly (4), Libby (4), Andrea (3), and Ivy (3).
We changed the name of RC’s cub Rocky to River. Rocky was too much like Rockie to keep.
At the Bear Center, "Pooch Pal" caught Tasha doing what she likes to do—have a good time splashing. It is heart-warming to see her safe and so carefree in this 3 ½ minute video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Q2iJw_G7U.
Still no shots heard here.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
Jani with cub Jani is 12 years old, (Mother was Braveheart killed (2019) at age 18 she had 3 cubs at the time. It's illegal to shoot bears with cubs.)
