Wonderful Day… until the Facebook update!

 

What started out at minus 22 degrees turned out to be a wonderful day.  All was copacetic in Lily’s den.  Well, almost.  Lily blew at Hope once for begging too much, but Lily relaxed and soon let Hope in to nurse. It’s common for bears to relax after expressing bluster. Video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp-dizKiS7M.

Ted and Lucky were due for some more straw after crushing their first batch down.  (See their Den Cam at http://www.bear.org/livecams/ted-lucky-cam.html).  Their camera was due for a cleaning after Lucky tried to clean it with his tongue again.  We thought the best way to keep Lucky from licking it right away again was to distract them with the new straw while Jason cleaned the lens.  All that coincided with David Hoole coming to do a news update for Northlands News Center (Duluth Channel 6).  Ted sleeps closest to the den entrance so he greeted Lynn with his friendly musical grunts.  Lynn and Donna Andrews left piles of hay just outside the entrance for Ted and Lucky to pull in if they wanted more bedding.  They did.  Ted immediately began raking it in as David filmed.  Inside the den, the Den Cam picked up the action.  Ted and Lucky both claimed some of the straw.  Lucky snuggled down into his pile, but Ted wanted more bedding.   He was a little gruff (vocally) with Lucky as he took it, which made Lucky respond with loud submissive whines.  The Bear Center staff watched on the big screen TV in the exhibit area as Lucky’s whines echoed through the Bear Center.  The sound on that TV is turned up so that their breathing is audible throughout the Center as they sleep, making it easy to count breaths.  When Lucky vocalized, it blasted out.  David and Lynn were doing an interview that just might include those overpowering sounds.  It will air on KBJR Channel 6 in Duluth Monday night.  David will send a link for us all to watch.

For Lynn, it was a treat to see Ted and hear his greeting after all these months.  Sue missed out.  She had her nose to the grindstone working on Educational Outreach materials.

The wonderful day was not over yet, though.  Treats that you sent arrived at the Bear Center.  Lots of treats.  A big box of individually wrapped cookies.  Tins of brownies and homemade chocolate chip cookies.  Mini-bear cookies.  A glass bear of cocoa mix.  Chocolate treats in shapes of bears.  Boxes of buckeyes (peanut butter/chocolate drops).  It set people to quietly hoarding and hiding items in their desk drawers.  We thank everyone who brightened our day like that.  Some of it was Valentine remembrances we opened early.  And all that reminded us of the wonderful frozen chicken pies we received recently. Thank you so much!

We completed the categories that Ted and Lucky Den-watchers can record on Excel spread sheets.  Below are the activity categories for Ted.  The categories for Lucky are similar.  If anyone is interested in observing the Ted and Lucky den cam and recording an hour of data each day, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

FACEBOOK

Lynn wrote the update and handed it off to Sue without knowing that Lily’s Facebook page had just been updated to the new ‘improved’ format! Major upheaval for everyone as we struggle to figure out where things are located and where our posts are disappearing to. The Lily Mods are scrambling to understand the changes and help everyone out. We thank them for their dedication to the Lily fans and we thank you all for your patience!

Thank you for all you do.

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