CO Bear Den

I'm not sure where to start on what a neat weekend we had in Colorado. My brother, David, works for Colorado State University and is on the research team for the Aspen Black Bear Project. He's been doing black bear research for 3 years now. I've been wanting to join him on a bear den, and this past weekend it finally happened!

Here is a video David had to make explaining the master's program he'll finish up this year:

So on Monday morning we drug ourselves out of bed at 5 am and drove the 2.5 hours just outside of Carbondale, Colorado where we met up with David and the rest of the crew, consisting of a vet, biologist, DOW big wigs, techies, and trainees. There were 24 in all...13 of them part of the crazy Lewis bunch. We hiked up the side of a mountain about 2 miles. Grandpa hiked up most of the way, but the last little stretch involved some serious post holing that was hard on his knees so he turned back. We're sad he didn't get to meet the black bears, but took lots of photos to make up for it.

After bush whacking and post-holing we hung back a ways from the den waiting for the research team to put the bear to sleep. Once they had Mama Bear darted (using a dissociative) and asleep we got to approach the den. While they worked on mama, our main job was to snuggle and help keep her two bear cubs warm. Such a fun assignment!

Can you imagine, going to sleep for the winter with no eating, drinking, defecating, or urinating and during that time giving birth to twins as well as lactating and nursing?! Bears might be onto something... :) There's actually been a doctor at Mayo Clinic studying the hibernation physiology of bears to see if it can be applied to humans. Come spring time when black bears emerge from hibernation, they don't suffer from muscle and bone mass loss, they solely live off fat stores during hibernation. Humans physiologically can't do that yet - the research is aimed at showing how to reduce metabolic rates and oxygen demands in human tissues which could possibly save people during traumatic injuries, or aid in space travel. Anyway it was very interesting to spend time with such knowledgeable people and I learned a lot!

So the main goal of the project David's been working on is to help reduce conflict between humans and black bears. Their research determines how human development affects the ecology of black bears and is determining how urban areas influence bear populations and how bears use urban environments. Via radio collars they collect activity patterns on bears in urban areas trying to identify specific attractants and understand the feeding behavior of the bears. Another side of the project is also evaluating the effectiveness of education to reduce human food sources in urban settings. All of this research will hopefully reduce bear-human conflicts!

Man Cub vs. Bear Cub

See there is nothing to fight about!

The bear cubs were both boys and weighed in at 6 lbs. each. They were born in Jan at only 8 oz. and can gain 100 lbs in their first year. Sawyer definitely had some healthy competition for cuteness and rapid weight gain :)

The newest Lewis, look how cute! They PITed (passive integrated transponder - like an ID tag of sorts) the cubs to be able to track them as they get older.

The above two pictures show how they weigh the bear...you gotta know your knots. David created this scale contraption. Mama Bear weighed in at 208 lbs!

This shows Mama Bear's neck wound - it actually wasn't too bad, and they patched her up good. It turned out this was her second den of the winter, which is somewhat unusual.

Here is the research team - they know how to have fun while working :)

Sawyer did fantastic. It made for some interesting nursing and diaper changing in the falling snow on our hike up :)

The above photos show us en route to the den - Kaden did awesome and hiked most of the way and only got carried the last stretch where snow would have been over his head. Unfortunately Sadie was sick and Sara carried her the whole way up, and Joe the whole way down...good thing they're so tough! Besides our feeding/changing stop, Sawyer slept most of the time in his backpack carrier.

So happy :)

What adorable bear cubs!

After they had finished collecting data we got a group shot with Mama Bear and her cubs.

Check out those claws! They are well developed and help the cubs out while nursing, yikes!

Sawyer did wake up for a bit to play with the bears...too bad he won't remember this day, but at least he has pictures to prove it!

Everyone was so happy!

Thank you Duncle Dave for allowing the fam in on your awesome job, it was SOOO neat to literally get a 'hands on' look at a black bear with her cubs...definitely one of those once-in-a-lifetime amazing opportunities!