Maine Bear Monitoring 2009

Spent the morning of Feb 20 with state biologist doing their annual bear monitoring, I was with them for only one of many dens they'll examine in the next few weeks, in this pic you see the biologist holding up tracking equipment, the bears wear a collar that sends out a signal.

a few hundred yards away they've located what they think is a den.

doing some digging around.

one of the technicians inadvertently steps thru and into a hole some 7-8' away, they've found the den..

a jab stick is prepared, this injection will sedate the bear so she can be removed from the den and given an examination.

in this picture you see the biologist entering the den to inject the bear.

on the way out he picks up the cub that was closest to the entrance and hands it off to Randy Cross (group leader).

he carefully examines the male cub

cub is weighed and measured by another biologist... 2.8 lbs. All data is entered into the bear's chart.

now they wait 10 minutes for the sedative to take effect on the mother bear... then she can be pulled out of the den.

ten minutes have gone by and it's time to pull the mother bear out of the den.

she's almost all out.

checking her teeth.

she's completely examined and a new collar is being prepared to replaced the old one, note the white patches on her chest.

the exams complete, a family portrait is taken just before they are returned to the den, thanks to Chuck Johnston (holding the 2 cubs) for making the arrangements that enabled me to get these pictures..

the rest of these pictures show the cubs and some of the people involved that morning.

their eyes aren't open yet

cute !!

taking a snooze!

go to here to see last March's bear monitoring

about 6 weeks old.

go to http://www.beartodream.org/facts.html to see more details on bear monitoring written by Randy Cross (pictured below)