Hope found, safe and sound

[Lee Borgersen]

5/28/2010 1:28:00 PM   
Hope found, safe and sound

by Tom Coombe:  Ely Echo

Hope, arguably the world's most famous bear cub, has been reunited with her mother near Ely after going missing for five days and scaring local researchers and many of her Facebook fans.

The four-month-old cub, whose birth was watched by thousands via webcam, spent much of Thursday nursing and playing with her mother, Lily, according to renowned bear researcher Lynn Rogers of Ely.

Rogers feared the worst earlier this week when Hope had not been located and the bears spent 122 hours apart.

But a tip from Eagles Nest Township residents Mike and Ellen Kochevar, who observed Hope near an area when she had spent much time with her mother, led to a reunion Wednesday evening.

First, Rogers and the North American Bear Center's Sue Mansfield lured Hope from a tree with sweetened condensed milk.

And though Hope was stronger than Rogers anticipated and "fought like a demon," she was placed inside a pet carrier and taken elsewhere in the township to Lily, a three-year-old radio collared bear that Rogers has followed since birth.

The reaction, Rogers said. "was the biggest emotional display between animals that I have ever seen."

"The cub was just bawling to be near the mother," said Rogers. "The cub wanted to be with the mother."

Lily, meanwhile, dragged Hope back to a white pine tree where they had spent time and they spent much of Thursday in close proximity with the other.

The bears were together after spending nearly a week apart, and an ordeal that began May 21.

That's when Rogers and Mansfield observed Hope "sound asleep on top of a red pine."

And while Lily spent much of the spring in an area, with Hope, about 50 yards in diameter, the mother bear took off and went over two miles away.

Rogers is able to track Lily by radio collar and GPS and found that she moved at a pace of five miles an hour, surmising that she was either "chasing something or being chased."

When Lily returned to where she had left her cub, two days had passed and Hope was gone.

"She came back and looked

really hard for two hours where she had left Hope," said Rogers.

But a rainstorm had washed away all of Hope's scent and Lily never resumed her search, leading Rogers to believe that she had given up looking.

Prospects for a reunion seemed to dampen as time went on, with Rogers suggesting that Hope may not be able to survive that long without her mother.

The cub was too small to be fitted for a radio collar and efforts to find her were without success, even after a neighborhood watch was formed and even after the St. Louis County Rescue Squad provided a heat-seeking camera.

But the Kochevars noticed Hope and Rogers was notified, leading to her discovery and the reunion late Wednesday.

"Should you as a researcher intervene and help like this?" Rogers said. "Most of the time our research is observing and reporting."

But Rogers believed intervention was warranted and called the reunion the "most satisfying moment in my 44 years of research."

"I had the feeling that we helped something good to happen and at the same time we were learning good science," said Rogers.

Fans of Hope and Lily seem to agree.

Updates about the search were filed both on the North American Bear Center's website (www.bear.org) and a Facebook page that has attracted over 97,000 fans.

"This is worldwide, this is everywhere," said Rogers, who spent much of Thursday being interviewed by local and national media. "When we posted an update (about the reunion), there were over 900 responses to it."

Hope's birth in January was an internet sensation, and Lily on two different occasions was the number-one searched topic on Google.

A television documentary featuring Lily and Hope will be seen by millions and this summer, hundreds of Lily's fans are set to come to Ely for the first "Lilypad Picnic," set for July 30-Aug. 1.

"This is all great for Ely," said Rogers. "It brings attention to Ely. It's good for the economics of the area."