Tasha’s bad hair day, we say goodbye to our summer interns, hello to our fall interns and Lucky gets a watermelon barbell.
Bear Weights:
Ted NA, Lucky 470 lbs., Holly 335 lbs., & Tasha 360 lbs.
Bear News – August 13, 2022
Bear fact: Interesting facts about foot pads from an update from the Wildlife Research Institute in 2010. “In mid to late winter, they shed their calloused old pads and sometimes ingest them. From that comes the Native American legend that bears crush berries into their foot pads all summer as they cruise their ranges, and then survive overwinter by sucking the essence of berries out of the pads, even consuming the pads themselves. We do find pieces of foot pads in fecal plugs near dens, so who can say the legend is wrong?” https://www.bearstudy.org/updates/daily-updates/813-update-february-8-2010.html
Tasha is a matted mess! I say that with love and respect for our round 7-year-old female. Usually all the bears have lost their winter coat by this time but the winter of 2022 seemed to last forever. In years past the bears have shed their winter coats in June, but this year it began in late July. We are curious as to what else will be different this year.
This weekend our summer interns finished their internship with the NABC. We wish them well as they finish school or search for their forever job. It has been a successful and productive season for them. We wish them all the best. As for our four bears, their gratitude reflects in their weights and contentment. We welcome our fall interns this week; their introductions will come soon.
The interns said goodbye to all the bears and took a picture with Ted. I told them I would include it so you all could see them one last time.
One of the last enrichment ideas the summer interns came up with was to make Lucky a barbell out of a solid long stick and two watermelons. As he approached the melons, he smelled them. One on each end. It rolled towards him and startled him but he adjusted and walked away. He walked back and tried to pull it away. One watermelon fell off and he took advantage of the stick. He carried it up to the bear dining room, (behind the rock den) after he ate it, we didn’t see him the rest of the day. Holly’s bear gate was opened and she walked down to the viewing area and took the other watermelon.
Holly has chosen Ben, our new Fall intern as a friend. Imagine that! She looks for him and when he talks, she goes towards the fence if she is in her enclosure.
As Dr. Rogers has said time and time again, the bears continue to teach us things and Holly has shown this is true. Ben also supplies her with treats in the stand-up feeder so she knows she is going to get treats from him.
I wasn’t present but have heard that our pesky raven has been bothering Ted bear. I know the ravens work in teams so a distraction will allow the other raven to get food. It was obvious that Ted had leftovers from dinner and the ravens wanted it. It is not uncommon for the ravens to be in Ted’s enclosure. We’ve seen them sitting on his bowl. Thank you for letting me know we’ll try to not leave any food that may attract them.
Some pictures courtesy of others, thank you.
Thank you also to everyone who purchased food for the bears on our Amazon Wishlist.
Thank you for all you do,
Sr. Bear Keeper, Sharon Herrell
