Update January 31, 2010 7:04 PM CST

Seeing Lily lie there so quietly, made us think about her high cholesterol and triglyceride levels during hibernation and what a metabolic marvel she is.

Healthy levels for cholesterol or triglycerides in people are both below 200 milligrams per deciliter (200 mg/dL). Black bear levels are almost this low in early summer when cholesterol averages 248 mg/dL and triglycerides come in at a healthy 169 mg/dL. However, by early hibernation, when they’re living off their fat, cholesterol reaches 351 and triglycerides reach 355.

Is that a problem? No. We made those measurements in healthy wild bears back in our early studies in the 1970’s and 1980’s when we still were using tranquilizers. The amazing thing is that we have never found plaque in the veins of even the oldest wild bears we’ve examined, and we’ve found no evidence of cholesterol gall stones.

How do bears get away with these high levels and no related problems, even in winter with no exercise? Further tests showed that bears have two secrets.

* Their good cholesterol, HDL is their big number. People exercise and take statin drugs to lower their bad cholesterol (LDL, meaning low density lipoprotein) and raise their HDL. Bears do it without trying.
* The other secret is in the gall bladder. They have a super drug named ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), which dissolves gall stones.

Ursodeoxycholic acid from bears has been used to dissolve cholesterol in people. It’s the main ingredient driving poaching for gall bladders to satisfy Asian markets. A form of UDCA is used as a treatment after strokes to minimize the brain damage caused by a process call apoptosis. Usually, after a stroke, chemical signals tell cells around the stroke area to die and disappear. That process is called apoptosis. Injections of TUDCA (tauroursodeoxycholic acid) convince the cells not to commit suicide and continue living.

Ursodeoxycholic acid is particularly concentrated in the bile fluids of hibernating bears and is thought to play an important role in cellular protection in hibernating black bears. Much is unknown about black bear hibernation. Medical researchers are studying it for clues for improving human medicine.

And you thought she was just snoozing and caring for her cub!

—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center

Update February 1, 2010 6:04 PM CST

Today, Lily heard a dog barking and snowmobiles—yet she continued to hover over the cub apparently undisturbed. It shows how she has adapted to sounds that don’t hurt her. It’s part of an example of how black bears can adapt to ‘civilization.’

But there are limits. Lily is used to distant sounds of vehicles, 4-wheelers, snowmobiles, and barking dogs. The same thing close to her den would be different. It’s all part of a process called ‘habituation’—a word heard frequently in bear management circles like it’s something bad. It just means bears are smart enough to get used to stressful stimuli that they learn does not hurt them. Stimuli that initially may make a bear run away are ignored after bears are subjected to the stimulus a number of times without pain. In campgrounds, bears initially run away when a person bangs pans. Eventually, they ignore banging pans. In residential areas, bears get used to seeing people and ignore them if the people behave in expected ways. The same bears run from people in the forest. We’re finding that habituation is location specific, situation specific, and to an extent individual human specific.

Two examples:

* People in one of our Black Bear Field Courses were interacting with a 500-pound male in an area where the bear was used to seeing people. The bear was calm. The situation was familiar. Six people surrounded the bear. No problem. The bear spotted someone a hundred yards away approaching from a place the bear did not expect to see anyone. The bear bolted and was not seen for days.
* In 2007, Sue was walking in the woods with June and her cubs (which included Lily). Sue was fully accepted. She was not a food-giver, but she was not a competitor. She was not an object of the bears’ affection, but she was not an enemy. Sue was just there recording data as usual. She was ignored. Over a hundred yards away, a person came into view on a path. The bear family bolted—Sue with them. Out of sight, the family was alert as the man passed. Then they went back to foraging.

Habituation is more complicated than is usually recognized. Only by being with bears, being trusted and accepted by them, can a person see how bears react. What we are finding is very different from the simplistic notions usually stated. By learning directly from the bears, just as Lily is showing us her activities in her den, we all are learning more about bear behavior than most people would have thought possible.

A big thank you to all who have contributed. Much appreciated.

—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center

Finally, they are addressing the fact that this bear is indeed HABITUATED to them. I recently expressed my concerns on this subject to one of their biologists and that I would like to see that explained. As they have delineated above, when an unfamiliar human encroached, the bear bolted into the woods. this is the behaviour that is self protective for a wild species....

Last night, I learned on the bear chat space, about a bear that was euthanized by FL Wildlife.....turns out a man ad been feeding it .....then one day, it was surprised by him and swatted the man.....and wildlife agents were called. This is one of the awful consequences of humans feeding wild bears...... further conversation about this could continue at the conservation conversation thread in conservation topic.....if any one is interested.

forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=7951

jwnix thanks for posting that information.
I know too well what habituated means. I live in a small city were the whitetail deer are part of our everyday lives. It's a daily event to see them walking down our city streets and sleeping in our yards. They don't bother anyone and no one bothers them.

I'm not sure which direction Lily is laying in this photo. Can hear the cub "purring".

jkr....how wonderful that your community has learned to successfully co-exist with the wild!!! congratulations on your participation !!! fabulous!!!


here is another update, which very much reminds me of how david hancock started out with eagle network in spring of 06.....main difference is he has self funded much of what he's accomplished. like this group, he also admits to Not being a fundraiser..... they are doing great job of putting out info re: their huge debt, dh has chosen to not do that so publicly and sadly, I think doesn't reap great rewards toward his debts.
typically, when I post these updates, I edit out fundraising info as we don't want to be raising money on HWF for other groups.....unless/until HWF is fully funded!! (now there's a dream for 2010!!!)
josephine



Update February 2, 2010 7:38 PM CST
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Today at 9:40pm
A big thank you to all the donors and to all who are suggesting ways to raise money for the North American Bear Center or asking for details about the $700,000 debt.

The debt is from constructing the nonprofit 501(c)(3) North American Bear Center, which opened May 7, 2007. We received no government money. We were incompetent fundraisers. The only thing we turned out to be good at was borrowing money. The debt from the 1.7 million dollar project was 1.2 million.

We are making a difference for bears but could do so much more if we weren’t spending so much on interest and principal. To reduce the debt, the Bear Center staff works mostly as volunteers. I am a total volunteer. The highest paid employee makes $15,000 per year. For all the staff has accomplished with so little money, we call them the Miracle Team. Our focus is replacing misconceptions with scientific facts, and it’s hard to find a better way to do that than letting people learn directly from bears like Lily.

Donations go totally and directly to reducing the principal. We don’t take anything for administering the funds, for overhead, or anything else that dilutes donations.

A question on Facebook asked how the nonprofit Wildlife Research Institute (WRI) differs from the North American Bear Center (NABC). The Wildlife Research Institute primarily does research, and the North American Bear Center primarily does education.

Since 1971, the Wildlife Research Institute has been conducting bear research and publishing scientific articles as shown at www.bearstudy.org. It conducts research under a permit from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources but receives no state or federal funding. Funded primarily by proceeds from its Black Bear Field Courses, the WRI is conducting the most detailed, long-term black bear research ever done. Professor E. O. Wilson of Harvard ranked the study as one of the four major studies of large mammals in the world. WRI has published more senior-authored, peer-reviewed scientific articles than anyone in the world. We work gratis to create exhibits for the North American Bear Center, charging only for materials.

When the Wildlife Research Institute had an opportunity to put a web cam in Lily’s den for scientific purposes, it seemed only natural to make it available to the public through the North American Bear Center. To see more of about the research, Lily, and the clan of bears she belongs to, watch ‘Bearwalker of the Northwoods’ on Animal Planet’s Wild Kingdom on April 4.

—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield,

here's link to a news story about the bear and camera....

http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/new ... HI&t=a

apparently there was a 'cub siting' recently and so video/pix ought to be going up soon. i did not see it yet.

Jwnix, I just watched the video clip of the full view cub shot. Oh how great it was to see the cubs whole body! So tiny, amazing!