DULUTH - A radio-collared bear associated with the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minn., has apparently been killed, despite a call for hunters to spare the collared bears.
The blood-spattered collar of a yearling named Sarah was anonymously dropped off in a Department of Natural Resources mailbox Tuesday morning, said Sue Mansfield, a biologist at the Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center.
"It's hard, it's just so hard," she said.
Bear Center biologists had been tracking 13 bears -- including the famed Lily and bear cub Hope -- and were hoping all would make it through bear-hunting season, which started Sept. 1.
Sarah's collar had fluorescent pink ribbons tied to it, which had been cut off the collar turned in by hunters.
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"It would be difficult to say that someone hadn't seen the ribbons," Mansfield said.
Researchers last saw Sarah alive on Saturday evening near the Eagle's Nest chain of lakes between Tower, Minn., and Ely.
Tracking the behavior of Sarah and her mother, a bear known as Braveheart, was especially important to researchers, who were using the information to compare and contrast to the behavior of Hope, her mother, Lily, and Lily's mother, June.
The 12 other collared bears followed by the center are located between Ely and Tower while Minnesota Department of Natural Resources researchers are monitoring about 35 radio-collared black bears mostly in northwestern Minnesota.
Although it's not illegal for hunters to take a bear wearing a collar, they should be especially vigilant for collared bears and avoid shooting them, Dave Garshelis, a DNR bear research biologist, said last week.
"We realize that the majority of hunters out there are ethical and would not shoot a radio-collared bear," Mansfield said. "It's difficult to understand why somebody would."
Another of Braveheart's radio-collared female cubs was killed by a hunter in 2006.
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