From the notes of Dan Mautz, MacKenzie Center, and Paul Tweed, Augusta High School.
Chronology
1995-96 Bears 1 and 2. Collar Drop Bears, male and female
1996-97 Bears 3 and 4, 3 was a female who died, 4 was Coonfork male.
1996-98 Bear 5, Humbird female
1997-98 Bears 6 and 7. Bear 6 is a male, no radio, released with 7 the Horse Creek female.
1998-99 Bear 8, Chaney Road male
1999-2000 Bear 7 and 8 are still out there.
A three-month-old female cub was brought to the Mackenzie Center in April of 1995 after being confiscated from someone who tried to make a pet of her. She was heavily imprinted on humans and had little fear based behavior. In June of that same year a male cub was brought to us after being orphaned in the wild. These two cubs were placed in an n existing enclosure that had previously been used for displaced bear cubs. It is an indoor-outdoor chain linked area that measures forty feet by forty feet. The male cub had very normal wild bear behavior. Although, over the summer it appeared to become more comfortable with the sight of humans because the imprinted female did not always react negatively toward situations that should have stimulated fear. The male cub did retain good rear based behavior that was imprinted on it by its mother while in the wild. Both cubs received a diet of natural fruits, vegetables, wild berries, and acorns. It is fair to guess that the imprinted female was fed junk food before she was confiscated. Both cubs grew normally during the summer and fall. Both bears were down solid in their winter den by Nov. 15th. On December 13th the sleeping cubs were crated and transported to the Eau Claire County forest. They were ear tagged, weighted, radio collared, and placed in a vacant den along with denning materials brought from their captive den. Both cubs remained in the den until spring.
The bears emerged from the den in late March. Tracked for 3 weeks and no evident movement detected. Augusta students and teachers walked into den site and located the collars. Bears both dropped the collars upon emerging from den. The den site area was one big mess. All the vegetation had been stomped down. Small trees bent, dead trees scraped, one standing dead tree scraped like a beaver was eating it. One collar was found next to tree in chips of rotten wood. Apparently the bear used the tree to remove the collar. The other collar was found in tall grass by a dead fall with many branch stumps, a bear may have hooked collar on a broken branch to it pull off.
A week or so later… A county sheriff deputy was parked near the Chaney Rd. County H intersection and had his car running. Both bears came out of the woods and climbed up on his hood. Next a fisherman near the Eau Claire River and Chaney Rd. sighted them as he sat in his truck with the engine running. Both bears attempted to climb up on the truck. The female was trapped and relocated several times, but her behavior problems led her to seek human contact. Early in the summer of 1996 the she got into trouble near Fairchild and was killed by a warden. The male also caused trouble near human dwellings and was trapped, removed and released in the Clark County forest. He was later harvested during the 1997 bear-hunting season.
Brought to the MacKenzie center in March of 1996, two orphaned infant cubs, a male and female were the next bears in our study. The siblings had been rescued from an uprooted den when the sow did not return for them. Logging operations disturbed the den. Since it was to cold to let these small animals outdoors without the mother's warmth, they were placed in a somewhat isolated heated building and fed a diet of lamb milk replacer and offered some fruit and greens. In May they were released into the enclosure used for bears 1 and 2 the previous year.
These two cubs never seemed to have a real strong fear of humans or new surroundings. They did not exhibit defensive posturing. Could it be that because they never had the chance to spend time out of the den on the landscape they never learned from a mother bear that they need to be fearful of the outside world? These cubs were fed a diet of natural fruits, vegetables, wild berries, nuts and acorns. Although both animals ate equally well, the female was only about half the size of the male when they went down into winter denning. In January of 1997 both cubs were crated and transported to a vacant den in the Eau Claire County forest. The den was made from a deadfall pine tree. Both bears emerged with collars on and began to wander. The female stayed primarily near the Eisenberg canoe landing on Chaney Rd. near the Eau Claire River. She was found dead in April and subsequent necropsy revealed a nonfunctional spleen. It is likely she survived the cub year because of human tending.
The male bear, dubbed "Coonfork bear", began a long spring of rambling all over the Eau Claire, Clark, and Jackson County forests. He stayed near the drop area and the canoe landing until one day he went north to the Wilson Township area. Local residents sighted him after about a week in the area and at one point treed him. He was captured, deemed too habituated to humans, and kept at the White Pine Wildlife Rehab. Center. Here he underwent de-habituation by Mike Gappa for about a week. He was then re-released at the canoe landing. For a short period he stayed in the Horse Creek road area. Later, he ventured southeast and was located by air near Lake Arbutus north of Black River. He was captured and returned to the canoe landing. At one point he approached local residents on a picnic near the river, he was fed and would not leave. Soon after returning he was sighted at a local hunter's bait station and stayed there until the bait season ended. The hunter reported that the bear would be waiting for him to arrive with the bait, and was difficult to get rid of. When the baits were pulled he became a problem at the Coon Fork County Park and was captured, removed and released in the Clark county forest. He was harvested during the fall bear hunting season.
Check out the story of the release of these two bears into their winter den!
Coonfork Bear's Location by Julian Date
This female cub was brought to the MacKenzie center in late January 1997 at one year of age. A snowplow crew near Woodruff found her along the roadside. She was active and aware but very weak. This cub was placed in the existing bear enclosure and provided with a winter denning box. She spent most of the time in the den although she did not go into a winter sleep. Because she was so weak and under weight she was fed a diet of fruits, vegetables, and acorns during the winter. She did consume food until her release into the wild in April of 1997.
After the death of the first 1997 female (bear 3), we released female bear #5 at the canoe landing, she became known as the Humbird female. She stayed in the Horse Creek area for several weeks and then began a gradual journey southeast to the Humbird ridge area in Jackson County. She ventured into western Clark County and rambled around some wetland areas, then stayed near Fairchild for a few weeks and eventually ended up near the firetower on Humbird ridge. Here she spent the majority of the summer. She foraged on both sides of the ridge and eventually found a small stone cave on the east side of the ridge one half mile north of Humbird. She went into the den for the winter. She was the first of the bears in this project to den up.
The following spring (1998) she emerged and headed straight for Humbird where she became a nuisance bear. Raiding bird feeders, going into garages and eating dog food, and entertaining residents in backyards by eating the food they set out were her activities. Gappa captured and removed her from the area. He changed her collar and released her back at the canoe landing. Within 2 days she was detected at the Augusta Wildlife area off of Hwy G. Here she dropped her collar and kept moving east. She was sighted near the Dells millpond area where she raided local bird feeders and the like. After a week or so she was sighted near Rodell (further east) and then disappeared until she became a nuisance bear south of the city of Eau Claire in the Lowes Creek Area. She was captured, removed, and released up north.
In the spring of 1997 the Wildlife Exhibit at the MacKenzie Center received a donation of money to construct a new enclosure to hold orphaned bear cubs for rehabilitation and release back into the wild. A chain link fenced area 70 feet wide by 100 feet deep was constructed. It was supplied with hollow logs, a large log pile, two standing dead trees, a number of rock piles, and tall plants and grasses. This enclosure has an attached heated building for exclusive isolation of infant bear cubs from any human sight or contact.
In October of 1997 the bear cub rehab unit received two ten-month-old cubs from North Woods Wildlife, one Male and one female. Both animals had been injured and required medical attention. Both of these bears exhibited excellent fear of humans and were very good candidates for the new rehabilitation enclosure. A diet of natural fruits, vegetables, wild berries, nuts and acorns was provided for the new inhabitants. These cubs were nocturnal from day one. The only tell tale sign of their being in the enclosure was the absence of food that was placed in the field every two to three days. They foraged at night until mid December at which time they chose one of the hollow logs for their winter sleep. They emerged from their winter den in mid March of 1998. They ate grasses and other greens until their release into the wild on April 22. The female was fitted with a radio collar, the male was ear tagged and released.
The female is still in the research project. Because of her range we refer to her as the Horse Creek Female. She has spent all her time (two summers now) in the Horse Creek area and successfully made a den and emerged without human contact. Her range is approximately 4 to 6 square miles. She has had no reports of human contact and is our first successful release and reintroduction of an orphaned cub bear. She currently is near the den stage and will (hopefully) build a den for the winter of 1999.
A 4.5 infant male cub was brought to the MacKenzie Center in April of 1998. This cub was placed in the new heated indoor isolation building. It was provided with a diet of lamb milk replacer and small amounts of fruits and vegetables to sample. This male cub displayed excellent fear based behavior toward humans and human surroundings. All care taking of this animal was directed toward re-enforcing fear behavior. Cub 8 was released into the outside open field area in May and went into hiding. A few times during the summer this cub would show signs of getting comfortable with the sight of people, even from a distance. At this point it was hazed with loud startling noise and would retreat back into hiding. This cub was given a diet of natural fruits, vegetables, wild berries, nuts, acorns, grubs and other insects. It was also fed quarters of white tail deer carcass. This cub went down to sleep in the den in mid December. It showed signs of spring activity in the third week of March 1999. In April it was trapped, crated, and transported to the Eau Claire County forest. It was chemically immobilized, ear tagged, fitted with a radio collar, and released into the wild.
Now known as "the Chaney Road Male", he has spent his first spring summer and fall in a range 4 to 5 square miles. We have had no reports of human interaction and his first summer has been uneventful, as he has so far maintained a very predictable territory.
Currently both the Chaney Road Male, and the Horse Creek Female are near the den stage. With the warm fall they have been moving right up through the end of November. We expect to find them both denned up in the next couple weeks. The dens will be located and mapped for we need to find them later in the winter so we can change their collars, collect winter data, and get them ready for the 2000 season.