Hi All,
Sorry I missed Sundays outing--I really wanted to go but something came up. I had hoped too, to share some photos of my adventure last Friday with Ben Kilham--there are too many to attach to email so I'll just send a couple of my faves. Maybe some of you saw the article in the Sunday Concord Monitor? The photos in the article were taken on Wednesday but I got to go out with Andy Timmins, Will Statts, and Ben on Friday.
The den we visited was found by someone walking their dog (the dog stuck his head inside) so we didn't know who was in there. As you can see in the photos (1-3), my fellow tracking experts, that the bear had already been active and was working hardily on the trees (Ben thought he may have been eating the cambium)!
The biologists went ahead of us and tranquilized our bear (Andy is holding the poke stick in photo 3) but waited till we got there before they pulled him out. At one point, two of the Fish & Game guys were head first in the den (photo 4), each holding onto a paw, while two other guys had them by the feet and were trying to pull them out. In the end, they ended up tying a rope around both paws to pull the bear out.
Our bear was a big male, 220 lbs after a long winter of fasting, 28" around the neck, and 44" around the barrel--with one end of the weigh stick jammed in the fork of a tree, it took three guys to lift the other end (photo 8).
Ben felt strongly that this was Burt, one of Squirtys first cubs and the father of the cubs she has now (we can ask Ben about his food sharing theories and studies when he presents for our group)!
They don't usually collar the males because they tend to wander outside Bens study area but he did put a collar on Burt, I guess because he's been sticking around but I'm not sure about this?
The biologists went ahead of us and tranquilized our bear (Andy is holding the poke stick in photo 3) but waited till we got there before they pulled him out. At one point, two of the Fish & Game guys were head first in the den (photo 4), each holding onto a paw, while two other guys had them by the feet and were trying to pull them out. In the end, they ended up tying a rope around both paws to pull the bear out.
Our bear was a big male, 220 lbs after a long winter of fasting, 28" around the neck, and 44" around the barrel--with one end of the weigh stick jammed in the fork of a tree, it took three guys to lift the other end (photo 8).
Ben felt strongly that this was Burt, one of Squirtys first cubs and the father of the cubs she has now (we can ask Ben about his food sharing theories and studies when he presents for our group)!
They don't usually collar the males because they tend to wander outside Bens study area but he did put a collar on Burt, I guess because he's been sticking around but I'm not sure about this?
In any case, it was a great time and I was grateful for the opportunity to spend the day with those guys, and especially with Burt!
Denyce
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