Two more days until bear camp is officially open for the 2021 season! I am taking a little afternoon quiet time, after working today on odds and ends that we keep thinking of. It's one of those things, as you do one task, you see another thing that could be done... and on and on.. We have been a camp of four for the past few days - we are now back to full staff. The last two guys just flew in, and brought the last of our supplies with them. Mainly food, along with a package from home (thank you Jessica!), flowers (thank you Steve!), and some final supplies to finish up a few projects. I spent some time arranging the flowers in our dining tent, and now I'm hanging out in my tent as I write this.
Last week we had a couple of days of piss poor weather. Rain and rip-roaring wind lasted 2 1/2 days.... if my memory serves me correctly. Time is strange though, especially out here. Some days fly by, some days seem like three in one..I think it was 2 1/2 days though 😂
Two days ago, the weather cleared up beautifully! I was busy picking things up around camp that had been relocated by the 35 mph winds, when a helicopter began to circle overhead. We tend to only see airplanes, and typically someone in camp recognizes the plane by company. This time, no one knew who it was.... plus it was a chopper, which is uncommon (I think because they are so loud, they tend to run wildlife off. There may be other reasons, but this is my understanding.).
After circling for what seemed like a good while, the chopper landed down the beach on the spit where the bay meets the creek that runs behind camp. A man walked up to camp, and introduced himself to me. Buck is his name, and he works for the national park system. Caprice (my manager) has known him since she started working out here over a decade ago. She says that usually they give us a heads up when they come out, but this time we didn't get a call. Any frustrations were alleviated as soon as Buck told us what they were up to. They had tranquilized a sow on the spit, and asked if we wanted to come over to see her while they ran some tests and collared her.
I'll rewind for a moment.... When we first got out here a couple of weeks ago, Caprice told us that the national park system was going to be collaring some bears in the area this year. So we knew this was going to happen, but we had no idea we would be able to get so close to the project.
As we walked over to the chopper and the bear, Buck explained that they are planning to collar 16 Coastal brown bears and 8 black bears up and down the coast. The collars will track the bears' locations, and will allow us to learn more about their travel patterns, amongst many other things (he spoke rather quickly, and got more and more excited as he went on so I didn't catch it all).
When we reached the sow, two other men had her wrapped up as they weighed her. She weighed in at 312 pounds, and the biologists predict that she will get up to about 550 pounds before going back into hibernation this fall. They introduced us to her, as bear 101 - the first bear of their 2021 study. They proceeded to draw blood, take a swab from her nose, measure her from head to tail, and get her body mass index. Then came the fun part. As Buck slipped a glove on his hand, he chuckled and said that they had done this project last year in Katmai National Park and Preserve, and somehow he had gotten out of the fecal test every time. So, he stepped up to the plate for 101.
The men invited us to come touch her, and check out her paws and teeth. By looking at her teeth, they estimate 101 to be between 17 and 20 years old. From looking her over, they do not believe that she has ever had cubs. Her back claws were split in some places, and they believe that this is due to weakening from a long hibernation followed by a treacherous descent from the mountains.
We learned that the bears will be tracked through the summer months and into the beginning of fall. The collars are programmed to come off by themselves October 15th (in the case that the biologists are unable to get to the bear to remove them themselves beforehand). They hope to get information that will help out with future work in nearby areas - Buck mentioned possible oil work. Would the bears be affected by this work, and if so how?
As I pet 101, I was surprised by how soft she is! I imagined the fur of brown bears to be very coarse, but she was as soft as a teddy bear. As to be expected, her coat was THICK. My hand was smothered by her fur before even touching her skin. Another surprise was that she did not stink - in fact she smelled great! Just like the coast, she smelled of salt. As the biologists finished up their work, they explained that she would be waking up later in the afternoon. She would be slow moving, and might stumble some as it sometimes takes time for them to get feeling in their back legs. Before we took off back to camp, I had to get a good bear hug in. I lay down and snuggled 101, and could hear her snoring as I have her a good squeeze. Her eyes were starting to flutter open and closed, but it was still another couple of hours before Caprice saw her get up and stumble about her day (we had been safely back at camp for a good while by then).
Surely, an experience I will never forget. Honestly an experience that I never thought I would have! I am excited to check up in the fall and see what all is learned from this project!
