Daryl: Hello, Bear! A true story by Daryl Radijak. It was late winter 1999, and the Bear Center had a couple of neonatal cubs that needed fostering to wild mother bears. We had already successfully fostered the cub's siblings the week before, so we were eager to get this cub united with a new mom. It wasn't gonna be long. A female had been located the day before within Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and she appeared to be in prime condition, having recently given birth to a few cubs of her own. She looked as if she would do just fine. the opportunity seemed perfect, so arrangements were made with the University of Tennessee Bear researchers. The next day, the hike to the den was nothing spectacular from a difficulty standpoint. In fact, It was a rather simple and uneventful hike. It was only about a mile down a well-traveled trail, and maybe 30 yards off the beaten path. What always made me smile seeing a bear den like this is. was how close by folks often walk to a sleeping bear. I have no doubt hundreds, if not thousands, of people passed within a stone's throw of this mother, and none were the wiser. The den itself was a typical bear den for the Smokies, made from the remnants of a monarch of a tree. This den, however, was not located up high within the bowl of the tree, for the tree itself was long gone. What remained was a behemoth of a stump And a tangle of sturdy, deep-reaching roots. I imagine in no time at all, upon finding the remnants of the tree, Mom had excavated a nice comfy cavity in the loosely packed soil beneath. The freshly mounted dirt at the entrance of her den still smelled of raw earth, and quite honestly, it smelled heavenly. it would be a few minutes as the two lead researchers, Frank and Don, made careful preparations. Cub in hand, I waited patiently a short distance away for them to sedate the mother. Hibernating bears, though a little groggy at first, are still a formidable animal. Common sense also tells us it's never a good idea for a rousing mother bear to hear a bawling cub nearby. I couldn't help but imagine it would get the adrenaline rushing in both the mother bear and the crazy stupid human holding the cub, which was me. Mother bears, though asleep, can and often do wake relatively quickly. Needless to say, Mama went down quietly, and Frank and Don began their work. Their first order of business was to extract the female's natural cubs and hand them to us so we could collect measurements and apply our secret solution to the cubs, also known as Vic's Vapor Rub. Interestingly Cub data wasn't of utmost importance. When it came to the primary study, one of the key aspects of their research was to collect information to learn more about den selection. This included taking measurements both inside and outside the den. The end goal of this research was simply to find out what makes for a good bear den. the cool thing with this particular den was that it actually had two different entrances, one in the front and a less conspicuous, smaller entrance in the back. I guess given the proximity of the den to the hiking trail, if the bear wanted to make a hasty retreat, should she need it, she could simply scoot out the back. Fortunately, the hole in the rear of the den was just large enough for a second researcher, Don, to crawl into, but just barely. His job was to replace the radio collar that was on the female's neck since its battery life was just about up. This was an ideal situation since with two people working together to collect the information and replace the collar, it was only going to take half the time had only one person been able to crawl inside the den. Enter? The importance of communication. As we stood outside, the view was quite comical, with only Frank's legs from the knee down protruding from the den entrance. Don was in a similar position on the opposite side of the tree. Their bodies looked like two human tent spikes staking in a tree stump. What was fascinating to think about, however, was that in between the two of them lie a 200 plus pound black bear mama, quietly sleeping away with the help of a little bit of drug. Regardless of the certainty of the concoction, it had to be a pretty intense time down there. That's when it happened. There were three of us standing there with cubs in hand, and before we knew what happened, there was four of us. Frank had appeared in literally the blink of an eye. Not only was he looking a little bit white, but he was wild eyed with multiple leaves stuck in his hair. It honestly looked as if he saw a ghost. What happened down there? We asked excitedly. Mom's waking up. In a mad scramble to help Don, who was still down there, we heard giggles, which assured us he was okay. Remember that part about communication? Since Frank and Don were on opposite ends of the den with a bear in between, they couldn't see what each other was doing. As Frank was measuring the height of the middle of the interior of the den, he was pretty much lying right up against the bear. as Frank looked up to record the measurement, Mama Bear also looked up and stared directly into Frank's eyes. Hello Bear! it was then that Frank, using only his abdominal muscles, made a hasty retreat in about 0.23 seconds flat. What Frank didn't know was that it was Don that lifted the bear's head to remove the collar. Hence the giggles. As we laughed about the situation, I can only imagine what was going through Frank's mind the moment that sequence occurred. Nose to nose with an unhappy mama bear in the confines of her den. All I can say is I'm glad it wasn't me. Life lesson Communication is key. Whether it be with your spouse, your kids, your co-worker, or even the guy making your sub sandwich at the dilly. If we don't communicate what's going on in our mind, they'll never know what's going on in our world or even how to react to us. Who knows? We may even enjoy communicating with each other. Which, I might add is extra important when there's a bear lounging in between the two of you.