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Post date: May 28, 2010 1:42:25 PM
It took a lot of work to bring together, but it was the most animal emotion a bear researcher has seen.
By MARY LYNN SMITH, Star Tribune
Last update: May 27, 2010 - 8:53 AM
The five-day saga of Hope, the missing bear cub who made headlines and kept many of her Facebook fans on pins and needles, was reunited with her mother Wednesday night.
"It was the most satisfying moment in my 44 years of bear study," said researcher Lynn Rogers. "I've been on such an emotional roller coaster the last five days. It was the most beautiful display of animal emotion that I have ever seen."
The two wild bears, being studied by researchers with the nonprofit North American Bear Center in Ely, have attracted tens of thousands of followers since the cub's birth and early life in a den in Ely was captured live via webcam.
On Friday, mother and cub became separated, and Lily appeared to give up the search for the 4-month-old cub on Sunday.
The researchers also were beginning to give up on Hope. But on Tuesday, spirits rose when the cub was spotted. On Wednesday, she was spotted again and the researchers rushed to the site, where she scurried up a cedar tree.
Researcher Sue Mansfield put some sweetened condensed milk on a stick to coax the cub down. "Hope went crazy for it," Rogers said. "She came far enough down the tree and I grabbed her."
Rogers held tight and eventually was able to put Hope into a small kennel carrier, where they fed her an electrolyte solution and more of the milk to offset the cub's hunger and dehydration.
Meanwhile, the researchers located Lily, who is equipped with a global positioning device, about a mile away and headed for what they hoped would be a family reunion. But as they got near, Lily got spooked and ran. To make matters worse, the kennel popped open and Hope escaped.
Rogers resorted to luring Lily out of hiding with one her favorite foods.
"When Lily spotted movement in the nearby woods, she lost interest in the food," Rogers said. It wasn't until moments later that mother bear and baby bear spotted one another.
Hope couldn't be more excited, he said. "Lily was grunting," Rogers said. "It's the sweetest sound that's filled with 'I want you.'"
Hope immediately latched onto Lily to nurse, and the mother bear "half-dragged" her cub to a pine tree that they knew all so well, Rogers said.
"I don't think they're going to let each other out of their sight again."
The North American Bear Center has posted a video of the reunification.
Mary Lynn Smith • 612-673-4788
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