Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

The North American Bear Center's Web site
had 467,000 page views during 2009 - not bad for a two-year-old operation based in end-of-the-road Ely.

      But thanks to Lily the hibernating bear, her newborn cub and
live video of a wild black bear birth, the Bear Center has seen
more interest in 2010. A lot more.


      "We had more than 3 million visitors over three weeks in
January alone," said Lynn Rogers, longtime Ely bear researcher and
the driving force behind the Bear Center.

 to see Lily and, hopefully,
catch a glimpse of her cub. Dozens of volunteer Den Cam watchers
from around the world have signed up to watch the video for one or
two hours each week and record what they see, so researchers can
eat and sleep and do other things.


      "We have between 50 and 60 people signed up for one or two
hours keeping track, and we'll organize all of it in a database.
They're as far away as Germany, Australia, England, and from just
about every state," said Janet Dalton, a grade school principal in
Morristown, Tenn., who is coordinating the Den Cam monitoring
effort. "And our (school's) kids are getting involved in class.
One of our second-grade classes is writing their director's book
about Lily."

      Since the cub was born on Jan. 22, Lily has mostly kept her back
to the camera while the cub has been nursing. Rogers said the cub
and bear seem to be communicating more now and the cub's noises
seem unmistakable, even to the untrained ear.

      Viewers have reported seeing part of the cub now and then, but
there have been no major appearances. Researchers say that should
change in a few weeks - probably about March 1 or so.


      "We think once its eyes open, which is at about 6 weeks, we'll
see a lot more activity. He or she will start to move around more
and we might see it on top of Lily and moving around," said Sue
Mansfield, another researcher.

      Rogers and Mansfield are watching their subjects from their
research cabin four miles from Lily's den, getting the same video
feed that millions of bear watchers around the world see. The
researchers already have been surprised at what they've seen while
watching an undisturbed bear give birth.


      "The 21 hours of labor was totally unexpected. How could
something so small, 9 inches long and 12 ounces, take that kind of
labor?" Mansfield said. "You could see the muscles on top of her
head tensing up. We think she (Lily) was probably clenching her
teeth at that point. And there were some other, very violent
movements as well. It was a struggle for her."

      Rogers said it's become much clearer that all Minnesota black
bears don't simply go to sleep in October and wake up in April.
Lily and other bears he's watching in person sometimes leave the
den to defecate. And Lily made a trip out just before giving birth
to retrieve fresh bedding of balsam fir boughs.
      


"The level of care she's giving is almost constant," Rogers
said. "A lot of people thought, and the literature assumed, that
bears went to sleep for six months and would wake up surprised to
see they had cubs. That clearly isn't the case."
      


Rogers is hoping that the popularity of Lily's Den Cam will help
the Bear Center crawl out of debt. The $1.7 million center opened
in Ely in May 2007 with 12,000 square feet of exhibits and hours of
video from Rogers' research of bears. The nonprofit center's board
borrowed to pay most of the center's cost, and $700,000 of the
mortgage is still outstanding.

      The Den Cam has helped trim that a bit. Donations in the latest
round of fundraising rocketed from less than $5,000 early in
January to more than $47,000 at month's end, though donations have
trailed off in recent days. 


"We are still a long way off," Rogers
noted.


      Lily is one of a dozen wild bear Rogers follows. He places
collars on research bears without use of tranquilizing darts - he
gains the animals' trust and the bears simply allow him to put the
collar on. It's part of Rogers' larger effort to prove that black
bears are a mostly docile animal that pose little or no threat to
people.

      Rogers also operates the nonprofit Bear Research Institute
through which he and Mansfield conduct their "walking with bears"
research, following bears through the woods and recording their
behavior. They also escort tourists on three-day, $1,500
bear-walking sessions each summer.

      Rogers' efforts have been criticized by traditional wildlife
researchers and managers and some neighbors who say the bears
Rogers studies become habituated to people, losing their fear, and
could become a danger to the public. Others say Rogers is using the
bears for personal fame and fortune and that his efforts are more
promotional than scientific.

      Rogers, 70, who has studied bears for 43 years, isn't deterred.
He says he's doing some of the most important research he's ever
done. Anything that helps people understand more about bears is a
success, he said. He's been featured in a recent BBC documentary
and his efforts will be featured in an Animal Planet show in April
across the U.S.

      "For years I was counting and weighing and tracking
tranquilized bears and wasn't doing anything to help bears,"
Rogers said. "Between the Lily Den Cam and the three or four
documentaries that are out or in the works, we're reaching millions
of people. We're letting the world see what we have (in and around
Ely), and we're changing attitudes about bears."

      The North American Bear Center is working on a deal under which
Cub Foods grocery stores will sponsor a "Name Lily's Cub" contest
starting Feb. 21. The contest would be promoted in Cub's 73 stores
across four states, and customers can submit entries for names for
Lily's cub. The winner will get a $500 Cub gift certificate.

      Cub Foods also will promote the center on its Web site,
including a "click to donate" feature.


      In addition, Twin Cities-based Cub Foods is promising to promote
the North American Bear Center and its mission on grocery bags at
the stores for two weeks. The stores go through about 3 million
bags a week.
     

Gallery

Ely bear gives birth to cub on den webcam

Webcam expected to show black bear giving birth in Ely

Environmental News

Minnesota News

Greater Minnesota

Thanks to Lily the hibernating bear, her newborn cub and live video of Lily giving birth, the North American Bear Center in Ely  has seen more interest so far this year than in the past. A lot more.

Lily gives Ely bear center a boost

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox