It’s hard to find a gentler bear than Lily. She has never swatted anyone. She has never bitten in anger. Like a dog, she may gently communicate using her mouth. She has never harmed anyone. She is calm and tolerant while having her bulky radio-collar and GPS unit replaced with a small, light radio-collar for the winter, as we did today. And most of all, she is gentle with Hope.
Little Hope, becoming big Hope, regularly runs Lily off food. If Lily finds something good to eat, Hope comes in and takes it with no protest from Lily. Hope treats Lily like a sibling she can dominate. Gentle Lily backs off every time.
We saw that again today as we were taking Lily’s heart rate. To do that, we gave Hope a few hazelnuts to distract her and gave Lily a few of the same to occupy her. Lily’s heart rate was slow, varying between 36 and 48 beats per minute. Except when Hope came to steal Lily’s nuts.
Each time Hope approached, Lily’s heart rate rose to around 60. This is slower than her summer rate in the 80’s and 90’s, of course, but today 60 represented a significant increase over her calm rate of 36 to 48.
Yet, Lily and Hope also calmly snuggle down together. As they settle in for the winter, we no longer see the rough play they did earlier in the summer.
The area around their den shows evidence of more raking.
Lily is still the watchdog of the two. When she is outside the den, she spends a lot of time sniffing the air, pivoting her ears, and looking into the forest.
From what we are seeing, we are looking forward to seeing Lily be the gentle, faithful mother of her next litter.
Yesterday, after Donna Rogers sampled some of the treats you sent, she said, “These people are incredibly generous. Almost beyond belief!” We echo that, and thank you for all you do.
Another thing you are doing is writing letters to editors and letters to officials, urging officials to do the right thing and give protection to the radio-collared bears that are so important to science, education, and the region. For help with letter-writing check the guidelines and talking points listed as ‘Contacting the DNR’ at
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=263755115498&topic=18562. For addresses to send letters to see ‘Legislator Contact Info at
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=263755115498&topic=18579. Thank you so much.
Lily and Hope at Den
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
