An Ely area bear cub whose birth last winter was shown world-wide by a remote web-camera focused on its mother’s den is missing. The North American Bear Center, which has been following the cub and its mother since the birth, reported that mother and cub had separated on Saturday.
The Star-Tribune has a story on the situation HERE.
The mother bear, named Lily by Bear Center researchers, left her cub, named Hope, asleep in a tree on Friday, May 21. Lily strayed more than two miles away from her cub, in a jaunt that perplexed observers.
The Bear Center’s description of Lily leaving her cub is HERE.
On Sunday, Lily appeared to return to the spot where she had left Hope, but heavy rains in the area may have made locating the cub impossible for the mother bear.
There’s an update from the weekend HERE.
According to the Bear Center’s latest post, Lily may have given up searching for her cub. She has left the area where she last saw Hope. That update can be found HERE.
Video from the North American Bear Center’s Web Site:
“May 23, 2010 – Lily’s Travel – We connected with Lily today to see what she was up to. We found her traveling her territory and intently sniffing trees, branches, bedsites, and other bears’ scats. At one point she paused to feed a bit on water parsnip roots.”