In Reply to: From Kerry Gunther (bears) posted by KenT on March 10, 2007 at 22:52:10:
Kent,
We had an even larger "Mini-Loonion" last night at Chico, which included Auwingwalker, Brynn, Mark R., Roadie, and myself. This subject was discussed over dinner. There is much confusion. Supposedly, the professor in question is in the process of publishing whatever is going to report on this. I'm thinking we have major confusion over when this occurred, because the web cam, which is now history, figures in the story.
I have to say that Kerry talking about his radio-collared bruins reminds me of doting parents, who say "none of my little darlings would have thrown that rock through the school window". I have to believe there are UN-collared grizzlies lurking in the vicinity of Pelican Valley.
I personally have seen a griz out wandering around in mid-January. It was a few days before Bush replaced Clinton, in January of 2001. Bruce Babbitt was making his "farewell tour" of some western national parks. He and PD's old buddy, Mike Finley, held a press conference at the Map Room in the Mammoth Hotel. That's when they announced the renaming of the Crystal Bench or Crystal Creek pack to the Mollie's pack, in honor of Mollie Beatty. I'm pretty sure that was the same day that Finley announced his retirement and new position, running the Turner Endangered Species Foundation, if I'm not mistaken.
The pressure was on Rick McIntyre to find wolves for the outgoing Secretary of the Interior to observe in the wild. We left the press conference as soon as the speaking ended and the glad-handing commenced. We zoomed out to the footbridge pullout, where Rick and a bunch of other folks were focused on the vicinity of the traditional Druid den site. Telemetry was showing the wily canids were up there, but they weren't showing themselves. Meanwhile, someone had spotted an adult grizzly off to the right, in the direction of Trout Lake. The bear was raiding squirrel middens at the bases of doug firs. It was another one of the incessant drought years, so the ground was bare for an approximate 10 or 12 foot radius around those trees. We watched that bear foraging for at least 15 or 20 minutes. Of course, just as the Secretary's entourage approached, the bear disappeared.
Ballpark