Spent the morning of Feb 20 with state biologist doing their annual bear monitoring, I was with them for only one of many dens they’ll examine in the next few weeks, in this pic you see the biologist holding up tracking equipment, the bears wear a collar that sends out a signal.

In the previous weeks an airplane had located signals from collared bears, the coordinates were put on a map and given to the ground crew, this makes locating the bears much quicker using locating equipment, the person on the right is holding up an antenna.
A few hundred yards away they’ve located what they think is a den.

one of the technicians inadvertently steps thru and into a hole some 7-8′ away, they’ve found the den..

a jab stick is prepared, this injection will sedate the bear so she can be removed from the den and given an examination.

in this picture you see the biologist entering the den to inject the bear.

on the way out he picks up the cub that was closest to the entrance and hands it off to Randy Cross (group leader).

he carefully examines the male cub

cub is weighed and measured by another biologist… 2.8 lbs. All data is entered into the bear’s chart.

now they wait 10 minutes for the sedative to take effect on the mother bear… then she can be pulled out of the den.

ten minutes have gone by and it’s time to pull the mother bear out of the den.

she’s completely examined and a new collar is being prepared to replaced the old one, note the white patches on her chest.

the exams complete, a family portrait is taken just before they are returned to the den, thanks to Chuck Johnston (holding the 2 cubs) for making the arrangements that enabled me to get these pictures..

the rest of these pictures show the cubs and some of the people involved that morning.

The Maine Bear Monitoring Program is in need of funding to purchase equipment to aid in their mission. Purchase of one of Paul Cyr’s 8X10 photos in the Bear Monitoring gallery on NorthernMainePhotos.com for $26 which includes shipping, and Paul Cyr and NorthernMainePhotos.com will donate the entire amount to the Maine Bear Monitoring Program.