Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: Here I am at the Ventuti Wildlife Sanctuary in August.
There's a few bears here and I'm just busy scooping some poop and I'm having a great time.
[00:00:16] Speaker A: There is a place in the remote northwoods of Minnesota in North America. It's located near the town of ore, population approximately 300. Outside this town is an area where normal rules are put to one side. It's a place where humans and wildlife meet. It's a special place, wholly unique and not without its controversies. This is the Vint Schutte Wildlife Sanctuary, run by the American Bear Association, ABA for short. The ABA is dedicated to promoting a better understanding of black bears and all wildlife through education, observation and experience.
I'm your host, Philip Stubley and welcome to the Bear Den.
Over the course of the series so far, we've covered the history of the aba, the sanctuary, why we do what we do, and introduced you to some of the colourful characters, human and bear alike, and hopefully educated you along the way. We're almost up to the present day and I will go over some of the changes and challenges faced today. We can't talk about the sanctuary without acknowledging the hard work of the staff and volunteers. They are the backbone of the aba and in this episode I'm basically going to ramble on about the volunteer experience and including some of my own personal examples if that's okay and if that doesn't whet your appetite. Afterwards, we'll listen to a recording of a chat that I had with co founder and renowned photographer Bill Lee.
Everyone's experience is different, which is one of the great things about volunteering. It's unique and personal. I believe volunteering provides formative experiences and allows you to learn a lot about yourself. In the first episode of this series I talked about my first experiences and a little bit about the day to day volunteer tasks at the sanctuary. So for more on that I would recommend going back there for a listen. The sanctuary predominantly relies on the goodness of people freely volunteering their time to help keep things running. These are selfless, passionate and hard working people from a variety of backgrounds.
People that bring a whole host of life skills with them like teaching carpentry, mechanical know how and culinary excellence.
Interns and volunteers come from all over the world to volunteer at the Vince Schutte Wildlife Sanctuary. Internships provide students with opportunities to gain valuable experience working with wildlife, natural resources and environmental education.
Interns who stay for over eight weeks also receive a stipend at the end of their internship. I have been lucky enough to volunteer in several situations and have been happy to have the bare necessities, it had to be said, of food and accommodation provided free of charge. As I have pursued my passions, this is not always the case as there are many volunteering opportunities out there that you have to pay for to take part in. On top of not charging volunteers, the ABA provides many perks to volunteering your time at the sanctuary. Aside from being able to observe and learn about wild black bears, I have seen the way the volunteer experience has measurably improved for the better over the last 10 years. There has been improvements to how staff are trained, education, outreach, research and field programmes for interns and volunteers. For instance, in the summer of 2023 a technician from the Voyagers Wolf project team took staff and interns out into the field for a day to learn about what they do. The bear food that we prepare used to be mixed by hand and we had to wash the buckets also by hand. Nowadays there is an electric mixer and a power wash system to clean those buckets. The accommodation has always been rustic with no electricity and running water. On a hot summer's day, volunteering can be sweaty work. But let's spare a thought for the bears. Like dogs, bears don't have any sweat glands, so they regulate their temperature by panting or immersing themselves in water. Their fur can get as hot as 175 degrees Fahrenheit. That's our takeaway bear fact for the episode. Sometimes you would have to use part of your day off to go wash your laundry in town or use the shower. That's all changed now though, as in the summer of 2024 we saw new showers, toilets and laundry facilities installed on site for volunteers. Hallelujah. And the ABA now has Starlink supplying Internet access luxuries I wouldn't have dreamed of 10 years ago. It was very weird the first time I was able to make a video call back to the UK from the Magic Circle. I do wonder what Vince would say. The educational signage on the observation deck has been updated with all sorts of information on bears, other wildlife and bear safety. The observation deck itself has expanded and a mock bear den was installed so people, and especially kids, can engage with hibernation behaviour in a fun way. Public engagement is one of the most important parts of the ABA's mission and it's one I enjoy. The sanctuary is open to the public from Labour Day through to Memorial Day. In the evenings, Tuesday to Saturday, interns and volunteers work helping to park cars, take admissions, run the gift shop, feed bears and give deck talks, all be on hand to answer questions. The roles are very fluid. You may be parking a car one moment. Normally I'm having to tell people I'm not Australian and then you may be asked to come down and join in Feeding the bears Seeing the wonder on visitors faces as they get to witness wild bears first hand is very rewarding and you get to meet some interesting people from all walks of life. One time a lady asked me what she should do when out jogging as she lives in bear country. Talking to her about this and seeing her take this advice on board really makes you feel that you're making a difference. I encourage people to ask me anything and that does sometimes throw me off. I had one kid ask me what would win in a fight, elephant or rhino. He answered his own question by telling me an elephant would. I did say ask me anything and I guess I should have been more specific the active social media channels provide a mixture of daily facts, photos and videos. Trail cams were strategically placed in an area of the creek where bears use a fallen tree to get across it. We've captured all sorts of fun footage from a bear chasing a chipmunk to a mother named Grisette crossing the tree with her yearlings. This video alone gained over 1 million views. Check it out on the social media channels. Side note, this bear was called Grisette as she had a beautiful grizzled looking fur coat. There are no grizzly bears in Minnesota, just black bears that, as we have previously noted, are not always black. I hope that makes that clear.
There's never a dull moment at the sanctuary. Things that don't go as planned often become some of the most memorable experiences. 2015 was a memorable year in itself, but one weekend sticks out in my mind. We had sat down for breakfast at 6:30am and we were told to expect a delivery truck in 24 hours. It then arrived an hour later so we had to head up to the pole barn and clear the place out. A large food delivery of multiple thousand pound boxes of bear food arrived and this all had to be unloaded with a forklift truck and placed into the pole barn. For the next part of this story I have to provide some context for I hope, obvious reasons. We have to scoop bear poop out of the magic circle during the summer feeding frenzy known as hyperphagia. Black Bears can eat 20,000 calories a day, 10 times the amount of calories they would have eaten in spring. Bears are totally focused on feeding, often only sleeping for three to four hours a day. They are also more prone to taking risks. So it is extra important to put away attractants, secure garbage and be bear aware. All this food means they can poop every half hour. That means we have the privilege of filling up quite a lot of buckets. Interns normally have a competition entitled Poop wars to see who can scoop the most poop. It makes the time go by.
Bears have short intestinal tracts, so don't always digest all of their food. So we sometimes get to see all sorts in their poop. It can tell us a lot. If the poop is red or purple coloured, it normally means the bear has been eating a lot of berries, or if it's a bit more greener liquidy, it indicates that they've been eating more grass or cellulose. It's a smorgasbord, I tell you.
These buckets are then loaded onto a truck and spread out in the woods elsewhere. Bears are one of nature's best seed dispersers, playing a vital role in the health of the forest ecosystem. One of the areas that we spread bear poop in has become filled with raspberries in recent years.
That's all well and good, but it doesn't help when the truck that's transporting the poop buckets runs out of gas halfway down the road. I remember having to wait while someone walked the mile back down the road to get some gas to fill it up. Oh, yeah, and that same day we wanted to fill up the water tank behind the kitchen and the generator decided to pack in, meaning we had to get a new one.
I should say this is by no means a common thing.
These things happen. You deal with them and you have to laugh. These shared experiences bring everyone closer together and create lasting memories and friendships. You build personal resilience and you grow to trust and rely on one another as you work together as a team with a common goal. After a day of work, evenings can be spent gathered around a fire and sharing stories. On a clear night, you can look up into the sky and see the Milky Way and hear wolves howling in the distance. I've been lucky enough to see the Perseid meteor showers and the northern lights while at the sanctuary.
Depending on the time of year that you visit, you see so many different things. Spring cubs in May and June, mating behaviours, mothers dispersing yearlings in summer and denning behaviours in autumn, such as mothers teaching their cubs how to survive. Cubs learn everything from their mothers and they do this by mimicking their mother's behaviours. Den making is one of the Most important lessons. So you see a mother raking at the grass and then you'll see her cub copying that raking motion and gathering it all up into a little bundle. These are the sorts of materials that bears use as bedding in the den. That's pretty neat. And another thing that I only really got to notice when I was at the sanctuary in the latter half of the year, so this would have been about late September, I got to see bears stripping the bark from trees. They do this to feed on the sapwood, the sapwood being the newly formed outer wood. They use both their claws and teeth to do this. And as the colder months approach, bears consume bark as it's high in starch and helps pack on the pounds. So that also contributes to that daily 20,000 calories. They also use bark for bedding material. Bears have been known to strip entire trees and can strip bark from as many as 70 trees a day.
The saying goes that a family that eats together, stays together, and working at the sanctuary builds up an appetite. Volunteers and interns cook dinner for each other most nights. You can sign up to a rota each week and it doesn't matter how experienced you are, and trying something new is actively encouraged. There is a relatively well stocked spice rack and I have definitely perfected some recipes over the years.
So if you're ever there when I am, I hope you enjoy a mango curry or a chickpea and broccoli burrito. There is always excitement when one of the board members, Angie Page, arrives as she loves cooking hearty meals for everyone. And even before she's arrived at the sanctuary, you have people putting their pre orders in being in the North Woods. It's not all about the sanctuary. Believe it or not, there is plenty to see and do. On your days off, you can go hiking in the nearby Voyageurs national park and State Parks. I recommend the Cab Ash Trail in Voyageurs and the Bass Lake Trail in Ely. Look out for the outdoor toilet. You can visit the nearby resort town of Ely and volunteers get free entry into the International Wolf Centre and the North American Bear Centre. There is a large thrift store in the town of Tower. There is also the Sudan Underground Mine, the deepest and oldest iron mine in Minnesota, which you can venture into. You get to put on your helmets and you go down in the lift. It's a glimpse into a bygone age. It took me a couple of years to get around all of these places and there are still more yet to explore. It is, after all, right near the boundary water, a vast Region of wilderness straddling the U.S. canadian border, which is popular for camping, canoeing and fishing.
Moving through the years we arrive at 2020, which was a rough year. It probably goes without saying. The global pandemic changed everything. I was supposed to come out to the sanctuary to stay for the whole season that year, but was grounded in the uk. I had just got back from two and a half years working in Borneo with sun bears and gotten myself a new passport in March 2020 as well. But it had to wait a while before it got any fresh stamps. The sanctuary had to close its doors to visitors, but and when it did reopen, it was under heavy restrictions. The bears weren't aware of these restrictions.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: However, so there was still plenty of.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: Work to be done. We sometimes have to remind visitors the bears don't just come in during public hours. It's throughout the season, throughout the day, from as early as April through to October. The team made it through the 2020 season with a skeleton crew, but it was a tough one. During that year, some of the regular bear food suppliers went out of business and costs for just about everything went up. We still feel the effects of that year to this day.
Like I say, you get on with it and accentuate the positive while doing so. Natural forage has always played a part in the amount of bear visitors the sanctuary gets. When there is an abundance of natural food, we see less bears. We have definitely noticed the effects of a changing climate and fluctuating weather patterns at the sanctuary. 2023 started with a late winter, which saw all the usual bear activities and behaviours pushed back by a few weeks. The spring was unusually quiet around the Magic Circle, but we attributed this to the bears spending more time foraging naturally.
Due to the late blossoming of nature, I might add, bears foraging naturally is what we like to see. Also, many acorns survived the winter and so bears likely foraged on this important food source. Acorns contain healthy fats. The bears need to gain weight lost during hibernation. We saw mothers disperse yearlings later and mating season lasted longer as well. Conversely, 2024 brought us an earlier spring. Essential food sources typically grow in late April and early May, and bears that emerge from dens early can suffer from malnutrition and starvation. Desperation for food can drive bears into populated areas, increasing the likelihood of human wildlife conflicts and putting both humans and bears at risk.
It is important to be bear aware and aware of seasonal behaviors if you are living or recreating in bear country.
2024 was a very wet year. One of the wettest in decades. Berry growth was delayed, so bear activity at the sanctuary was unusual, with bears arriving either earlier or later than normal. Hotshot, who we talked about in the radio collaring episode, arrived three weeks later than he normally does. Another bear, a female known as Elsa, a personal favourite, also arrived in July 2024, which was a month earlier than she normally does.
A charismatic bear, Elsa was first noticed at the sanctuary in 2014. So it's estimated she was born around 2010. With many distinctive features. The white spot on her behind, dark muzzle and a white chest blaze. You always know when she is around. A funny thing about Elsa in the Magic Circle, generally the larger males come out to eat in the open while mothers and cubs hang around in the woods on the fringes. This allows the mothers to keep the cubs safe. Elsa, just to be different, happily comes out into the open area and seemingly without a care in the world, brings out her cubs with her too. Other times, she will leave her cub up in the tree. When left alone for a time, cubs get scared and so call out for their mother. Here's what that sounds like.
Mothers can recognise their cubs call from up to a mile away. Generally, mothers go back and call their cubs down. She makes a clucking sound which comforts them and brings them in. Elsa, I'm not sure if it's by choice or absentmindedness, sometimes leaves the cubs up there for ages before going back. We hear many bear vocalizations at the sanctuary. I mention the larger males out in the open area. Bears, young and old, grumble at each other when getting possessive over food or if they want to communicate that they're uncomfortable. It sometimes results in a standoff until one bear gives way to the other. It normally doesn't escalate, but can result in swatting.
And that last high pitched, very distinctive sound was from a bear called George. He's sadly no longer with us, but he always used to come into the sanctuary looking like a teddy bear that the mice had gotten to. Sorry, we went down a bit of a rabbit hole there. Where were we? Oh yes. Bears leaving dens earlier also means that the ABA has to initiate feeding programs ahead of schedule, which can place a strain on resources and staff capacity. Bear food alone has doubled in cost over time. Overall, the ABA is lucky to break even in a financial year saying all this. If I haven't put you off and you wish to volunteer or take part in an internship at the sanctuary, you can find more information on the ABA website. These are just some of my musings on the volunteer experience and the current situation.
It's not perfect. There is always room for improvement, but we keep on doing what we can while we can and there is no place quite like the Sanctuary. I believe you can trace a line back through your life and experiences and I honestly have no idea what my life would have been like without volunteering at the Vinsciutti Wildlife Sanctuary, a story begins and rarely ends where you expect it to. I also just want to say thank you to everyone who has joined me on this journey so far. Hopefully you're all still there and I hope you've been entertained and educated along the way. For those who listened to the Radio Collar episode, you'll remember there was an extract from a longer chat I had with the ABA President and Executive Director Steph Horner. You'll finally get to hear the rest of that chat in the next episode. We talk about all sorts from the challenges of running a non profit, interesting bear behaviours and much more. There are plenty more bear topics to discuss and if there are any subjects you want to hear about, get in touch.
It feels only right we invite another voice into the bear den and round this episode off with one of the ABA founders. When I was visiting the sanctuary back in August, September 2024, it happened to coincide with one of Bill Lee's photo workshops. I managed to grab some time to talk to him and record a few questions which I'll play back for you now. We did sit on the observation platform and I should note that you'll be able to hear a bit of background noise, including the ravens. They are not, as some have asked, monkeys. It's also worth noting that Bill does refer to bears from the past and some of these bears had been given human names. That's something we tend to avoid nowadays.
So without further ado, let's hear from Bill.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: If someone was coming to the sanctuary for the first time and you had to describe it, what would you say?
[00:20:55] Speaker C: Oh wow.
I would just describe it as this amazing place where bears and humans coexist peacefully and it's a wonderful opportunity for people to see bears and learn about them because there's so many misconceptions about bears and so if they can see them, observe them, see some of their behaviors, our staff interprets that behavior and people go away with a different viewpoint of bears. And I think that's what Vince wanted. That's what we all wanted when we established the sanctuary is to change attitudes towards BE bears.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Next year is it's going to be 30 years since the ABA was founded. I mean, how do you feel about that?
[00:21:49] Speaker C: Pretty amazing. Never thought we'd make it through the first year.
And the fact that now it's going to be 30 years and there's still one bear from back in 1993 that's still coming, and she's about 34 years old, and she's just amazing. And the fact that we've existed and gotten along here with the sanctuary is credit to so many people, so many interns, so many volunteers, staff who have dedicated their lives to making this a better world for bears.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: Is there a specific bear or story you can think of, you'd like to share?
[00:22:34] Speaker C: Well, of course, there's many favorite bears over the years. I think it's most important for people to realize that bears like people or like dogs.
Each has his or her own personality. And you've got happy bears, you've got grouchy bears, you've got bears that love to play. You've got bears that are serious. You have the whole spectrum of different types of mothering behaviors. You have some moms who, like Sarah, was just right over her cubs, watching every moment. And then there's Elsa, who's carefree, lets her cubs do whatever they want.
And I just think it's amazing to see these different personalities and approaches to life. And, you know, we think about, lets say somebody has seen a lot of golden retrievers and they all look alike. Well, to the public, black bears tend to look alike. But like those golden retrievers, if you've had them, you know that each one has a unique personality. The bears have unique personalities. And that's what makes the life of every bear valuable, because every bear is one of a kind.
And I just think it's important that people keep that in mind.
One of my favorite bears early on was a bear named Sam. He was about a three and a half, four and a half year old, real easygoing, was what I call a people bear. He didn't mind people around him. He had close friend that we named Handsome, and they often did a lot of things together. And then there was Carl. Carl, for some reason, hated Sam. And every time Sam came into the sanctuary, Carl could be at one end of the field, and if he saw Sam at the other, he would go after Sam and chase Sam out of here. Well, one time he got Sam cornered and Sam had to fight. And he ended up biting Carl on the flank, on the hind end, and ripped a piece of hide off and just left bare meat. And of course, Carl was just in a frizzy over that. And from that day on, whenever Sam came into the sanctuary, Carl left and people fell in love with Sam. Like, we had a BBC film crew out here and the cameraman just took a liking to Sam. Just every morning he would seek out Sam and say good morning to him. And at the end of a week or so of filming, the crew got together for a group picture and they all were out in the field and Sam came up and sat right next to that cameraman to get his picture taken with the crew. So Sam was quite the character. Unfortunately, he didn't come for many years. I'm afraid something probably happened to him, but he was a bear that early on stuck in my mind a lot, but. But I could go on with a whole lot of others to. Yeah, I'm sure I was going to.
[00:26:14] Speaker B: Say as well, obviously you've still been involved with the sanctuary to this day. You run photography workshops. I wondered if you wanted to talk just a little bit about that.
[00:26:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm not involved in any official capacity. I'm not on the board of directors.
I don't do much advising at all. But I do like to come every year and lead a couple of photo tours and just share the bears with other people. We have a group in right now and several of them have been here before, and there's just nothing like the experience. You can try to explain what the sanctuary is like, what it's like to be among the bears, but until you've done it and experienced it for yourself, it's just hard to describe the amazing feeling of when there's a trust between humans and a bear, especially some of these bigger ones. So, yeah, it's a wonderful way for me to reunite with the bears that I love.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: Each year, if people were to say if they're against you photographing the bears or they think that you're encroaching on their space. Like, is this something you would say to that?
[00:27:35] Speaker C: Well, I mean, our situation here is so different. The bears are so used to people. I mean, what do we have, maybe 20,000 visitors a year coming back here and all of the staff and volunteers and interns. So it's not your typical situation of going out into the deep wilds. I mean, these bears are wild. They're free to come and go, but they're habituated to a location, I feel. And so when they step into this opening, they know that there's that truce between man and bear and that allows us to be around them and photograph them with minimal impact on them. And that's important because we want to respect them.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: Yeah, very much. So what would you say then about photographing bears? If you were photographing bears not here, what would you advise people to do?
[00:28:31] Speaker C: Well, again, it depends on whether you're in a national park where there's no hunting, where they're used to seeing people a lot more versus if they're in a hunted area in the wild. I don't really want a hunted bear to become used to me because that could set them up. We don't want to do that. So. But like, you know, I see bears in Great Smoky Mountains national park, which is where I live right next to it, and see bears and photograph them there and give them their space. But with long lens, you can stay back and photograph them and get good photos. And. And hey, there's nothing I enjoy more than hanging out with a bear.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: I get that.
[00:29:25] Speaker C: I always say bears are predictable. It's the people who are wild and unpredictable.
[00:29:32] Speaker B: Mentioned the national park. Prior to being a photographer, you worked in the national parks, didn't you?
[00:29:37] Speaker C: U.S. forest Service national forest. So where there is hunting. No, no need to apologize. Where there is hunting. So national parks and national forests, completely different philosophy of management. So, again, I feel much better in a national park, and you have better chance of getting photos since the wildlife isn't hunted.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: If you wanted to just talk about the question of feeding in relation to the sanctuary, that'd be great.
[00:30:09] Speaker C: All right. Well, you know, it is important for people to realize that it's not a good idea to feed bears. And one of our greatest challenges is to let people come in and they see that we're feeding bears, and yet we want them to leave with the message that it's not a good idea to feed bears. We're very lucky that this is very remote. Vince fed the bears here feed for 30, 40, 50 years or they've been fed here. Generations of bears have been coming, and it gives us an opportunity to teach people about bears. But you don't want to go home and be feeding bears. And, you know, no matter what, some people are not going to agree with what we're doing, and I understand that, but we just happen to feed. Feel the educational value outweighs the negative of continuing something that's been going on for so many, many years.
[00:31:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree.
Is there anything else you'd like to say in relation to the sanctuary or about yourself?
[00:31:21] Speaker C: I'd much rather talk about bears or Vince, actually.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: Let's. Yeah.
[00:31:26] Speaker C: Vents. Who I sat character and, you know, he was out here. He was a logger. He had an old dilapidated cabin and he and his men had go out and log. And when they come back in, it wasn't unusual for a bear to have broken into his cabin. So back then, Vince was shooting the bears. And then one day he got to thinking to himself, you know, these bears aren't mean, they're just hungry. So he decided that if he put food outside of his cabin, maybe they quit breaking into his cabin.
So eventually he ended up feeding the bears for. For decades, and they became like family to him. And. And he wanted people to learn and understand what he did about bears, that they're totally different than what. What we're taught to believe. And so when we created the sanctuary and built this viewing platform, we would go into town and get Vince and bring him out, and we had a chair where he would sit, and all the people would come up to him and talk to him and talk about his bears. And he would talk, talk about his bears, and he just lit up like a light bulb. I mean, this was his dream come true, that his bears could continue on long after he was gone. So he wanted people to know about bears.
[00:33:04] Speaker B: What do you think he would say about the situation now?
[00:33:07] Speaker C: He would love it. He'd love to be up here and viewing the busload of people as they. They come off of the bus and the excitement of seeing the bears, especially the kids. And he would be very happy, and he'd be very happy to know Peanut is still with us.
He was a character. He was a thoughtful person. I always remember when you'd ask him a question, he would always stop and think. You know, he didn't just rush out with an answer. And he was a good guy. A good guy.
[00:33:51] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:33:51] Speaker A: Thank you, Bill.
[00:33:52] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:33:54] Speaker A: The Bear Den the American Bear association.
[00:33:57] Speaker B: Podcast was written and presented by me, Philip Stubley.
[00:33:59] Speaker A: The music was composed by React Music and Night Drift. Thank you to everyone who has helped.
[00:34:04] Speaker B: Make this podcast possible. It including Karen Housman, Bill Lee, Clary Lee, Stephanie Horner, Donna Brzinka, Ross Coyer, and Angie Page.
You can find out more about the American Bear association at www.americanbear.org. you can ask questions and submit comments to pswmericanbear.org Instagram handle is and Facebook page is Vinceutley Wildlife Sanctuary.
[00:34:26] Speaker A: If you wish to purchase a copy.
[00:34:27] Speaker B: Of Schwinn and the Woodchip pile, you can find it in the sanctuary gift shop on the ABA website or contact me directly.
A lot of the information on the life of Vince Schuttee which we heard about in previous episodes, has come from the comprehensive book They're Not Mean, They're Just Hungry by Brian Galusha and the volunteers of the Vint Tschuti Wildlife Sanctuary. This is available at the Sanctuary on Site gift shop or via the website. The ABA is a special circumstance. We do not condone feeding wild animals.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: If you enjoy this podcast, help support.
[00:34:53] Speaker B: The ABA either by donating, becoming an ABA member, symbolically adopting a bear, or come visit the sanctuary during the season and say hello.
