"On behalf of the North American Bear Center, thank you all from the bottoms of our hearts for your persistence and hard work to create this very successful outcome in the face of stiff competition. It took far more votes to accomplish this than any of us thought. You kept working—hard. We share your passion to educate about bears, and that is exactly what will result from your efforts. We also thank J P Morgan Chase Community Giving for its effort to support grassroots organizations that work with a broad internet constituency. Their efforts to stimulate the effectiveness of small organizations that would have a hard time obtaining grants from many foundations is much appreciated and is good for America.”
This is big, of course. We’re thinking back to the end of June when Susan Tillman discovered the contest, cast the first vote for the Bear Center, and let us know about the contest. We were baffled how the Bear Center ended up with such a great opportunity. You all went to work for two weeks of nail-biting suspense, elevating us to 3rd place and $100,000. Absolutely incredible.
A day after Sandra let us know about the Bear Center being in the Chase contest, she let us know that James Wert had discovered that the Wildlife Research Institute was also in the running, and he cast the first vote to start more suspense and success. Thank you all.
Out in the field, Lily and Hope continued to bond. When Hope cried out in distress, Lily came running, grunting her concern.
Hope is foraging along with Lily, taking advantage of Lily’s ability to pull down tall juneberry bushes. They also were eating ant pupae, alder-leafed buckthorn berries, dewberries, raspberries, and blueberries. Hope sticks to Lily like glue—more closely than we have seen with other cubs, even leaving the nuts we brought to catch up with Lily.
Lily vocalized several times while nursing Hope. We have never heard a mother do that before and don’t know what it means.
The relatively short time we accompanied them, we saw no play. Unlike yesterday, they skipped the frivolities and got down to the work of foraging.
Today, they covered over 3 miles, finding many feeding locations. This is farther than Hope was moving on her own. This is the main thing mothers teach—not what to eat but feeding locations. Cubs retain the information. While foraging, cubs have the advantage of their mother’s ability to detect danger and communicate it by a change in her breathing. Cubs also respond to danger on their own, but having the mother nearby to alert them allows cubs to concentrate more on foraging and not be quite the nervous cub Hope was for these past 6 weeks.
We are so glad they are back together.
Thank you again for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
Like mother, like daughter!! What a joyous picture for us all to see after 6 weeks of this litle cub being on her own!
GOOD MORNING TO ALL!
With the help of all who voted, the NABC will be awarded 100,000 dollars by Chase Bank, and the Wildlife Research institute will be awarded 20,000 dollars! This is such a boost to both of those organizations to continue with their educational studies to help us all understand at least one animal with which we share this planet. July 12th was a super day all around.
This is to be my last day at this fantastic campsite, as I have work to do at home. It rained hard last night, but any nasty lightning storms again circled me here. Today it is about 68 degrees, the lake is nearly dead calm, and it could become a good swimming day. Laura, her husband, her two sons and their wives came over yesterday afternoon and we all went swimming. Then we went to the bar/lodge for a couple of cold drinks while sitting out on their deck watching the lake and feeling the cool breeze. It is so nice to have some time to get together with them all again----we shared all summer every year at my pond when the kids were little.
I hope all is well with you, wherever you may be. I hope you'll stop by and let us know what's up and share some coffee. Happy Wednesday!
I think we had more days over 90 in June and July than under, with June being the 2nd or 3rd hottest on record for the area. I want to go to Seattle or around Eureka, CA. the high there today is supposed to be 61, sounds wonderful to me!! I spent a summer on Patrick's Point near Trinidad, CA and it was seldom above 70 degrees, I loved the foggy mornings. Oh well, I'll just turn up the A/C and pretend. Not much on today, have a lady coming for hypnosis to help with weight loss this afternoon. The girl I'm working with to stop smoking isn't doing well and is going to try a support group offered through the health dept. in addition to the hypnosis. 
so early morn. app. a must right now. Hopefully I will be back before it hits 90's. Going to be a wee bit before its fixed, I think. Got the bill for my well repair, glad I waited out the week end before calling, they get an arm and a leg just for driving out here and messing around for awhile 
Need water, but when I first saw bill thought I might need a heart dr. 
Had the same problem before, and they have sure gone up on their prices. Oh well, such is life and the economy.
