Maine Bear Monitoring 2009

By Paul Cyr

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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.
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a few hundred yards away they've located what they think is a den.
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doing some digging around.
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one of the technicians inadvertently steps thru and into a hole some 7-8' away, they've found the den..
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a jab stick is prepared, this injection will sedate the bear so she can be removed from the den and given an examination.
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in this picture you see the biologist entering the den to inject the bear.
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on the way out he picks up the cub that was closest to the entrance and hands it off to Randy Cross (group leader).
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he carefully examines the male cub
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cub is weighed and measured by another biologist... 2.8 lbs. All data is entered into the bear's chart.
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now they wait 10 minutes for the sedative to take effect on the mother bear... then she can be pulled out of the den.
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ten minutes have gone by and it's time to pull the mother bear out of the den.
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she's almost all out.
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checking her teeth.
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she's completely examined and a new collar is being prepared to replaced the old one, note the white patches on her chest.
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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..
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the rest of these pictures show the cubs and some of the people involved that morning.
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their eyes aren't open yet
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cute !!
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taking a snooze!
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go to here to see last March's bear monitoring
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about 6 weeks old.
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go to http://www.beartodream.org/facts.html to see more details on bear monitoring written by Randy Cross (pictured below)
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