When we imagine black bears, we find it’s easy to picture one running off with the food pack or scampering up a tree in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. We imagine keeping our distance–especially if there are cubs around.
But Ely resident and wildlife biologist Lynn Rogers gets up close and personal with northern Minnesota’s bears. An MPR photo montage shot in August shows Rogers feeding June, a pregnant black bear weighing in at more than 300 lbs. June wears florescent tags on her research collar, something Rogers added so hunters know she is a research bear. She seems to have no problem letting Rogers examine her with a stethoscope (nor, for that matter, mugging for the camera). See the full article HERE.
Rogers heads the North American Bear Center in Ely, and he just broke ground on a $1 million expansion. He plans to double the size of the facility, which facilitates research, education and public exhibits. Just over half of the money has been raised according to an article in the Duluth News Tribune–including one donation of $400,000 and $150,000 from fans who liked watching a live cam of Lily the bear giving birth to her cubs in 2010.
The mission of the North American Bear Center is to “advance the long-term survival of bears worldwide by replacing misconceptions with scientific facts about bears, their role in ecosystems, and their relations with humans.” You can check out the web site, including a live webcam of bears in action, HERE.