After my first night in Uppsala I caught a train 3 hours north to Mora, where I was collected by the genteel but hardy bear man, Sven who took me to the Scandinavian Bear Project’s field station at Tackesan. Tackesan was/is beautiful and filled with lively staff and students, but I was too tired and busy to really enjoy it. I had to check my tracking units to see that everything was in order. Unfortunately, I found that one unit seemed to have an error so I spent the next few hours trying to fix in the hope that we could put both units on the bears the following morning.
I had no luck, but we continued with our plan to collar at least one bear the following day at the Orsa Gronklitt bear park. It was my big day and I was really nervous. But I had the bear keeper Kalle and Sven to lead the show. We chose an unsuspecting 2 year old male from a group of 8 sub-adults. An air-rifle was used to sedate the bear, who I called Pan. We then quickly maneuvered to measure the bears neck to get the appropriate collar width, attached “my” tracking unit using rivets and bolts and then fastened the collar around the bear. Pan was then given an antidote to help him wake up which took a really long time. Poor Pan. I really hoped that this inconvenience would be worth it. In my heart I always feared that the unit wouldn’t work after the disastrous experiences I had just before coming to Sweden.
That day I moved into the hostel at the bear accommodation which was pretty comfortable and completely empty. Most of my ten days were pretty lonely as the young staff and volunteers at the park didn’t make much effort to engage with me. Only Kalle was friendly and provided me with conversation. I continued to test the second unit and for some reason it started to work. Unfortunately we were only able to put the second collar on the bear on Saturday (5 days later). This time it was just me and Kalle and I was perfectly in control. It was very exhilarating and I was very proud of myself.
During my ten days at Orsa Gronklit I filmed Pan (and later Baloo) from an elevated walkway under trying conditions. The first week was incredibly hot and the second, very, very cold and rainy. Much of the time viewing the bears they were either sleeping or I couldn’t get a good shot or see them at all. So even after many hours of viewing I only got 12.5 hours of film.
Yesterday, Friday was the big day to remove the collars so that I could download the data. The collars are removed by a remote signal which caused the collars to disengage. The bear still needs to shake his head vigorously to get the collar off. The one collar came of easily but the second took hours. Eventually we had to use a screw driver to pry open the clip after inviting Baloo to the fence with food. GPS data from the collar was successfully downloaded. The next step was to open up “my” tracking/camera unit to download the acceleration, magnetometer and photographic data.
The data from Baloo’s collar looked great, although it was only on for 5 days. But, much to my disappointment, the unit from Pan, had been infiltrated by water and wasn’t functioning. This is a huge loss since I collected the most film data for Pan. Now I’m racked with doubt and guilt, was it my fault? Did I collect enough film of Baloo? I didn’t push myself hard enough? To top it off on Thursday, the video camera malfunctioned for an unknown reason, but I also feel guilty about it. Did I do something wrong?
Yes, so the ending has been bittersweet. I’ve let my supervisor know by email, but don’t want to check his reply. I know I did my best (although I still have nagging doubts that I could have filmed more) and I am proud of what I’ve accomplished and learned. I only hope that that is good enough.
Anyway at least I’m relaxing here at Tackesan today with great people before heading off
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