Sex, Sounds, and Guidelines

Which cub was it that looked like a male?  Lynn thought it was the light one—the same one we thought was a male earlier. Some viewers thought it was the dark one, but at one point we were pretty sure the dark one was a female.  Sue said she couldn’t tell what color it was and that the light cub looks light or dark depending on how the light reflects off the fur.

Someone asked if the light cub will stay brown—assuming it is brown (Lynn thinks it is).  A lot of cubs start out brown but lose their brown cub fur when they molt into their adult fur during their first summer.  Some of these brown cubs molt into dark fur that more easily bleaches in the sun. Ted is one such bear. His black coat bleaches out to show brown highlights as he basks in the sun under the admiring gaze of visitors to the Bear Center. Other bears start out brown and stay that way.  Crackle fits into this category. Early in the summer his winter coat bleaches a golden color. Once he sheds, he becomes a deep chocolate brown and it can be hard to tell him from a ‘black’ black bear. However, standing next to a ‘black’ black bear, Crackle is clearly brown.

In northeastern Minnesota, maybe one in 25 or 35 bears is brown.  There are little enclaves where brown is found.  Between Minnesota to the Atlantic Ocean, brown is rare.  West of Minnesota, it becomes more common.  In western states that are the home of the subspecies Ursus americanus cinnamomum, brown is the more common color http://www.bearstudy.org/website/images/stories/Publications/Inheritance_of_Coat_Color.pdf .

Lily fans are going to know more about black bear vocalizations than nearly anyone.  Bears seldom vocalize during encounters with people.  They may express nervousness by blowing and slamming their feet down, but they don’t usually use their human-like voice in that situation.  Campers hear the moan of fear sometimes when bears retreat up trees and sit on a branch.  If the person is afraid, the sound gets reported as growling, and sometimes it sounds like that.  But that’s where you all shine.  We are getting to know these bears well enough to correctly interpret their sounds and listen for nuances.   But that is not to say we know a lot.

We are still learning the differences in sounds and what they mean.  For example, there are drawn-out sounds that sound similar.  The moan of fear is usually deep-throated and plaintive.  When Lucky made a sound when Ted moved quickly at him in the video in the update a couple nights ago, it was more high-pitched than usual and seemed more like a submissive whine.  Is that a separate sound or a variation of the moan of fear?

A similar sound is the begging sound bears make when they want something very badly.  That’s the sound Ted is making in this video http://www.facebook.com/v/1214921872604&oid=263755115498

by Jackie Runions.  Honey has taken over the food on the scale at the Bear Center.  Ted is hanging around making the begging sound louder and deeper than we’ve heard it elsewhere, but Ted is also bigger than any of the other bears that we had heard.  He makes the same sound when he wants to get near recalcitrant Honey in mating season.  Honey is responding with the pulsing sound of high stress.

Hope makes a begging sound when she wants to nurse.  It varies from bear to bear, but the same general sounds occur consistently in similar situations.  Only by seeing bears make these sounds in context and recording the sounds for later comparison can we make good progress in knowing the differences in somewhat similar sounds.  We don’t get many videos of bears vocalizing, so we are still learning after 44 years.  There are 8 sounds you can find on bear.org at http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/black-bear/communication/29-vocalizations-a-body-language.html .

Bear Center Curator Donna Andrews caught this video of Honey demonstrating the difficulty bears have traveling through deep snow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAGwaGzPpso.

Karen Goodwin sent this link about cheetahs that sounds a lot like the Lily and Hope situation last summer.  One cub didn’t stimulate the mother to make enough milk or prevent ovulation http://www.pawnation.com/2011/02/09/cheetah-adopts-at-risk-cub-at-the-national-zoo/ .

We hear your complaints about fundraising efforts for the Bear Center on Lily’s page, about people using Lily’s page to promote other causes, and about people using Lily’s page to sell items with only a portion of the profit going to the Bear Center.  We hear you when you say you are primarily here to learn about bears, especially Lily and Hope.  So we reluctantly asked the moderators to come up with guidelines to address these problems.  We say “reluctantly” because we have always been extremely thankful to see Lily fans spontaneously coming up with fun ways to raise substantial, much-needed money to reduce the debt.  We also understand that you are here primarily to learn about bears, especially Lily and Hope.  So here are the guidelines.  We realize that these rules may hamper your creativity and spontaneity and may reduce donations, but we hear your voices.  We agree that our main purpose is education and we can’t let too much get in the way of that.  Here are the additional guidelines.

FUNDRAISING AND SELLING

All fundraising and donation efforts that are advertised on Lily the Black Bear's fan page must be coordinated through Team Bear This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  This includes efforts to raise money for the North American Bear Center, the Wildlife Research Institute, or any other organization that is part of the research bears’ community.  If you have ideas for fundraising of any kind, please contact Team Bear to make arrangements.

Unauthorized use of the WRI, NABC, "Lily the Black Bear", "Lily and Hope", any of the names of the other research bears or any variation of such, including descriptions of events, to promote or create merchandise or services are strictly prohibited.

Personal selling and soliciting for donations for other organizations on the Lily the Black Bear site is prohibited.

Fans seeking to solicit donations for the WRI or the NABC must coordinate through Team Bear before posting is allowed.

CONTESTS

All contests and voting on the Lily the Black Bear Page must be submitted to the Program Development Team prior to being posted on the wall. Please email ideas to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Thank you for all you’ve done and are doing.

—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center