It started with a segment on a TV show many years ago… and Becky Hollis was hooked. Since then she’s been crazy about bears. Yes, those furry woodland creatures.
What does that have to do with retirement? Well, in your Golden Years you’re not working – so what do you do instead? If you don’t have a good answer – an activity you truly enjoy – you’ll be worse than bored… it can actually negatively impact your mental and physical well-being.
Becky has found fulfillment working with bear programs in Minnesota that help keep them in harmony with the human world.
She gives us all the details of her work, as well as…
Foods bears actually eat – and what they won’t touch
The rejuvenating power of being in nature
The unexpected benefits of following your passion in life
What to do if you don’t have any “hobbies”
Where to go and what to do if you want to learn more about bears and enjoy their company in person
Listen now…
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
John Curry: Hey folks. John Curry here for another episode of the Secure Retirement Podcast. This is going to be an interesting conversation today. Jay Wolf and I are sitting here with our friend Becky Hollis. Becky has a story that's going to blow your mind. She is involved in a bear project in Minnesota. And Becky, welcome.
Becky Hollis: Thank you,
John: Looking forward to hearing this story and dig deeper. But would you first please just share with our audience who you are, what you do in your day job, then I want to jump right into the bears that you love so much.
For the Love of Bears
Becky: I'm Becky Hollis, I work for Century Link. I have been in the telephony industry for 42 years and counting. And I am a supervisor over outside technicians.
John: So you're the person who makes all this stuff happen. So if something breaks down, you send the team out to fix it. Very good. Well, we thank you for that because you keep our phones working. Okay, let's get down to the real serious stuff here. You shared with Jay and me sometime back about you getting involved in a project following the life of a bear. Would you please, and I was I'm still intrigued about this, would you please just tell us how this all came about?
Becky: Back in 2010, I was watching the Today Show. And they had a segment on a bear biologist who was putting a den camera in a while bear's den. And they had a video of him with the bear. She was in her den, and I was hooked. There was something about that face, that bear just grabbed my heart.
And I went on the website and started watching the videos from her live den cam. Watched during labor, watched to have that sweet cub. She only had one. And watched the den cam every day I got home from work that's the first thing I did was I put that computer on and watched them in the den until the end of March they left to go explore the world.
John: Alright let's explore that. So first of all, some people might be asking why in the world are we having a conversation about bears and what that has to do with a secure retirement? Well, it has everything to do with it because people who are nearing retirement or in retirement or constantly asking the question, what's next? What should I be doing? And some people would see that TV show and not take action. You took action. So when you saw the show what prompted you to, as best you can explain it, what prompted you to want to learn more? What hooked you?
Becky: Well, I went on to the website for bearstudy.org, Dr. Lim Rogers is the bear biologist, and just read all about the clan that he has studied. He studied bears for over 45 years and these bears used to have radio collars on them. And he walked with them and just read all about his study and what he had done, and saw where he had courses that he offered every year where you could go stay at his research cabin and interact then observe bears. So I started planing, I started saving money, I started just reading all I could. I became a moderator for their Lily the Black Bear Facebook page and just learned everything.
And the more I read the more I wanted to see. So I made all the plans, I could go to the bear study course. And they have a picnic all the, this thing just went wild. In no time they had over a million followers. This group of ladies got together and planned a picnic and they called it the Lily Pad Picnic after Lily the bear who had the cub. And people from all over the world descended upon Ealing Minnesota to go to this picnic. So it's just a group of people. I mean this phenomenon I can't describe it. I mean, it hit a lot of people.
John: Wow. Wow. You were telling us while we were having lunch, and Jay jumped in here with some of the questions you were asking earlier. You were talking about, actually I think you said sitting in a recliner and feeding bears right? So I got I just get this visual of you sitting out in the middle of the woods, got your recliner, you're sitting kick back and this bear comes up and says hey woman give me some food. So describe how it really was.
Feeding Wild Bears
Becky: In Minnesota, it's legal to feed wild bears. So Dr. Rogers had a steady on diversionary feeding and some of the local homeowners, they feed bears. They put out, you know, they have feeders. Some of them are the lids to garbage cans served upside down that they put feeding like nuts, they put berries, they put birdseed out for the bears. And the bears, you know, they know where there's food and they go to those houses.
They don't bother anything and when they see people it's like, and I know this is gonna sound crazy, but it's like you're part of the environment so they ignore you. They literally just ignore you. The episode I told you about I was outside. I said a recliner but it was an outdoor chair, you know? And I was just sitting out there communing with nature. And some of the yearlings came up, and that's a bear that.
Cubs stay with their mothers until they're 16 or 17 months old. And so then they have a family breakup. So you have all these yearlings that are separated from their mother and they're scared and they'll all get together and play and stuff like that. But I was sitting in this chair, and all of a sudden I feel something smelling of my arm. And it was one of the yearlings. And if I had not shooed him away, I think he would have climbed in my lap.
John: Just like a lapdog.
Becky: Yeah, yeah. And these are not, I want to stress, these are not tame bears. It's in the middle of the Superior National Forest. They come and go and do whatever. And you know, I never would have thought I would have done this because, you know, bears are, because of what you hear, you know? Bears don't growl. People talk about how they growl, they don't growl. They're like dogs. You know, which ones you can be around, and you know which ones to stay clear of. They are just amazing. They are just amazing, the animals.
John: Folks, I wish you could see Becky's face as she's having this conversation. I mean it's just like, you just light up your eyes light up, you just this is a fascinating project for you.
Jay: I find it interesting, Becky, that you were talking about how they put out feeders for the bears. And it seems like they do that to somewhat attract them, to bring them closer to where you guys are at. And living down in Florida, you know, we've had an issue here recently with bears getting into people's garbage cans, and a lot of people are kind of frustrated by it.
Kind of elaborate more on the purpose of why they are doing that. Are they trying to bring the bears closer into human interaction to show that maybe it's okay for the bears to be close to us? Even though they get into our garbage and maybe make a mess. There's really no threat to the bears being around us. Kind of elaborate on that.
Becky: Well, it's a mixed bag about feeding. Up in Minnesota, hunters bait. They put out food for Bears. Right now, hunting season started on September 1. Now, I don't know I don't want to step on anybody's toes or anything but putting food out for a bear and waiting for them to come eat and then shoot it. That doesn't strike me as hunting.
John: That's not hunting, that's just shooting, right?
Becky: Right. But anyway. So you know, if it's legal to do that, it's legal for people to feed or whatever. Not everybody does it. There's a lot of people that are totally against it. There's a lot of people in this area that I'm talking about that do not feed. But Dr. Roger, he is the guy who started a diversionary feeding program. And you know, a lot of again, a lot of people agree with it, a lot of people didn't.
But the study was to say, you know, if you take bears out and feed them in one location, they stay out of trouble. Especially yet that he has proved in him. Especially if there's a bad food year. Now you know, I don't, living in Florida. I don't know that much about the food crop here. But I know in Minnesota up in that area, the last few years, they've had a good berry crop and all and there really hasn't been a problem with bears looking for food now.
Now they are because they've got going through the hyperphagia eating as much as they can. Because there's some that go to bed for six, seven months you know? So it's a mixed bag. It's been proven up there that they have stayed out of trouble. Now again, you'll hear stories that are opposite from what I'm saying but as being part of it reading on it, I know what I know so.
John: Becky, elaborate on what the bears eat. I know Jay asked about that earlier during lunch. What do they eat?
Becky: They eat berries. They leave certain types of leaves, Aspen leaves. They eat, of course, birdseed. You know, when you live in bear country don't put bird feeders out. They're not gonna make it.
John: Oh, really? I didn't think about that. So if you had bird feeders out, they would come raid the bird feeder? Like squirrels.
Becky: Some of them eat, like, I didn't touch on this. But there's also a bear center in Minnesota where they have four bears that cannot be released in captivity because they were raised by humans. And they're habituated. Okay, so they are in this compound, I guess you would call it. It's a pretty big compound. It can be expanded, but there's the four resident bears. And now they eat grapes. They eat peaches. You know, fruit and stuff. But it's what people give them.
John: Interesting. Yeah. Interesting. Tell us about the courses. You said you've been there I think you said three or four times. Tell us a little about the courses. And then I want to come back and circle around and talk about the takeaways from this that I've gotten today.
Become Educated About Bears
Becky: They offer bear courses. They start the first around the middle of July and goes through the end of August because like I said earlier hunting season starts September first. And you spend three days, four nights about. And you stay at the research cabin, which is in the middle of where all the bears there's, and you basically learn about bears.
You used to when they had the radio collars on when he hit that steady going on, they would find the bears to make telemetry because they had GPS collars on am radio collars. But they don't have that anymore. So what they rely on are the bears that come to the cabin, which are usually the big males. The females with cubs stay away from the big males because there could be issues there. And you watch them. You will watch them in their habitat.
A neighbor may call and say hey, we've got bears here, and they'll jump in the van and drive over there and watch them and you know, Dr. Rogers has been doing this for so long. You know, he pretty much knows where the bears are. Some of the time you know, but you know the bears are not sitting there just waiting for you to come. You just happen up on them. That's just like those bears that come to the house and eat. I have gone out in the woods hiking behind where they come eat, and have never seen a bear in the woods.
John: Really? I've seen him a few times well, sitting in a deer stand. We were talking earlier, I'd sit in a deer stand and watch the critters and my brother and my son get mad at me because I didn't shoot a deer. But I remember one day watching this bear just come walking down the road. Little black bear. It wasn't very old. It was just cute to watch them. But I've never had the desire to go do what you're doing sit there and feed these knuckleheads.
Becky: These are, you know, I would like to say I don't know that you hit on it. But I want to reiterate, these are black bears. They're not grizzly bears. They're black bears.
Jay: What are you guys putting in the feeders when you try to draw them and closer to you? Are you putting things like bird feed? Are there specific things you're putting out?
Becky: It's a mixture. There's hazelnuts. The bears that are there seem to prefer hazelnuts. Of course, you know they grow wild there. We'll put hazelnuts, we'll put birdseed, we'll put berries. Blueberries. They love blueberries. Blueberries grow wild up there. It's just a mixture.
John: I must be part bear because I love hazelnuts, and I love blueberries. So I guess I'm part bear Jay.
Becky: You haven't lived until you've seen a black bear eat a peanut in the shell. It's to watch them, you know, do their tongues and all. And they spit out the husk or whatever you call it. But they don't spit out the nut.
Jay: Like eating a sunflower seed.
Becky: Yeah.
John: All right, let's talk a little bit about what you were sharing with us about being in nature. That one of the things you love about is not just the bears, but also your words, you share what you told us.
Becky: Well, it's, I laugh at people out there because I talk about humidity. About how humid it is up there. And as I tell them, you just don't have a clue. You just don't know I mean, you can actually sit outside there in the middle of the day and breathe. And you know, it's just sitting out there and hearing the wind blow. It's just so calming. That is my go-to place. That's my happy place. That's where I want to be in the summer.
John: You've told us a few times in meetings that when you retire you want to do more of that. And just be going for like a few days at a time. So fast forward when you retire. What do you see happening is, and I call the bear project, Becky's bears I call it. So when the time comes that you have more time freedom because you'll have the money freedom with retirement planning you've done, so you have more time freedom. Tell us what that looks like as far as how much time you might be there what you'll be doing with the project.
Becky: What I want to do is I want to go out there probably in late April early May it's still cold then up there. And stay till August 31. I've been there one time during hunting season and I will not be there again. It's nerve wracking. It's not fun. But anyway I am I plan on being there. I plan o volunteering anywhere I can. Any way I can. I will be volunteering for sure at the North American bear center. That's where the four captive bears are. They have a nice facility there. Pictures, videos, everything about black bears that you could ever see.
Actually any animal in the north woods. They have moose exhibits. They have, not live moose. Oh, but you know just all the animals that are family are, you know they have exhibits for them. They do have some fish tanks with walleye and all men. And if the different types of fish. The one thing I like about Minnesota, there's only two or three types of snakes. And they're not poisonous. Or the ones, I don't think any of them are poisonous it's the ones I've seen or not. I don't think that. There's no moccasins, there's no rattlesnakes.
John: So here's what I'm hearing, you don't share the same love of snakes as you do for bears. Okay.
Becky: I'll kiss a bear but you can forget about a snake.
John: Talk a little bit about you made a comment about bears being like dogs, you know which one to be wary of talk about that. Some people listeners and say this woman is nuts. You're out in the woods with bears that are wild. They're not domesticated. So what are the dangers that you have to be looking out for? And why the heck are you doing this?
Safer Than Popular Belief
Beck: Well, like a bear when you're getting too close, or they are trying to warn you though clack. I can't do it, but they'll play their jaws. Or they'll stop the grand a lot. And that's just them saying you're getting close. Okay, cool. Now you have not lived until you're looking at a 530 ish pound female bear with four cubs. And you're looking at her in a with a zoom lens. And she does that to you. I had to go inside. That scared me.
John: How far away was a bear?
Becky: Hmm. Maybe 20 feet. Yeah. And that's when you just know. And you know, of course, during the bear study courses, you know, and these bears have unique features. Identifying features, you know, you after you've been to the study and all you can pretty much say well that's what I would know Lily anywhere. That's my bear. But anyway, she'll do that.
Now, I've never seen a bear in all my time up there I have never seen one take after a person. I've seen them chase another bear off because you know, the females are territorial. But I think they get a bad rap. I mean, they're not little tame things. You have to be, you have to use your head which I know you don't think I use my head. But you know, it's just you just know if you're around them enough it's like, you learn them you. this one bear that left charged me last year, she slapped a nut out of my hand.
John: Tell us more about that.
Becky: Well, I was feeding her hazelnuts. They love hazelnuts. And again, I was stupid. I probably shouldn't have.
John: So your bare hands, a hazelnut's not that big. Like a marble. So you're holding your hand.
Becky: They've got long sticky tongues. They don't they're not like dogs. I mean, like stick that tongue out and you know, and it's sticky. But anyway, I was given it to her. And I ran out. I didn't have any more so I was just like, Okay, here's a peanut and she looked at me. I knew it was six and a half. And she, but let me tell you if she wanted to hurt me, she could have hurt me.
John: But she literally slapped it as if to say I don't want that.
Becky: Yeah.
John: That's funny. Do you have any videos of you with feeding the bears? That's gotta be fascinating. I want to see that sometime. That'd be awesome.
Becky: I have pictures.
John: Alright, so let's do this. Let's talk about some takeaways here. So you see this TV show, I think it said it was the Today Show. Most people would watch a show, I would add watch a show that's nice. Maybe another person watches it so I think I'll go check that out learn more and they'll mean to do they don't do it. Then you watched the show, You learn something new but you didn't stop there. You took action. What do you think prompted you seeing this bear to get this involved? Would you ever have thought when you first saw that?
Becky: I tell people I found my passion at 43/44 years old. Wow. That's what I tell people because I've never seen a man of them smile off and everyone but nothing to this extreme for lack of a better word.
John: I think you told me this was like nine years ago. So you've been keeping track of this for nine years now?
Becky: Yeah. And it's just there was just something about it and I mean, I went off on my own you know, I'm like, I didn't know all these people. I didn't know any of these people. And I just there was something, it hit my heart. I mean it's just a passion.
John: What advice would you offer anyone listening who says you know, I don't really have any hobbies? I have nothing I really want to do now much less than retirement. What advice would you offer those people?
Find Your Passion
Becky: Search for something. It, you know, I wasn't looking for this. I mean I just watched a show. And I mean, I love animals. I love dogs. But if you had ever told me that I would be going to look at wild bears I would have told you that you were crazy. But life's too short. You need to find something.
John: You know we're talking about retirement planning. We tell them make sure you're retiring to something, not retiring from something because if you're running away from something because you're miserable, you're gonna be miserable in retirement. So you're not going to be miserable in retirement because you have something that you're excited about. You have passion. You love sharing the story.
And that's why I wanted to give you the opportunity to have this conversation and share this story because this is fascinating. And I'm looking forward to us doing an update in the future with some of the things that you do. Before we go anything you'd like to end with as far as giving people information about how to learn more about this project. How do people get involved if they want to learn more?
Becky: If you're interested, you can go to www.bearstudy.org. That will take you to the Wildlife Research Institute, which is where Dr. Rogers has these courses and all. The other website is for the North American Bear Center is www.bear.org. And there's all kinds of information there that tell you about the four bears that are there. One of them's Ted. He was raised by humans and he is the sweetest thing. He's my favorite male bear. He's the one that has kissed me.
John: You, so you kiss the bear. Kissed a bear.
Becky: But again, you know, these were bears that were raised by humans. And they cannot be released into the wild because they couldn't make it. But it's very, very interesting.
John: I love it. I love it.
Jay: Thank you, Becky, for sharing your passion for this. I think that's one of the most intriguing things about this is not just the dip of the extraordinary thing of you being involved with bears, but the passion that you have for it.
I think that's what really comes out in this is showing your want to be a part of it. Your want to be part of the understanding between bears and humans and the relationships that they have. It's not always bad. It shows that it can be a good thing. But not only that, the bears are getting so much out of it and you are getting so much out of it as well. So it's very cool to see that.
John: Becky, thank you so much for sharing your story.
Becky: Oh, thank you.
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2019-87224 Exp 10/2/2021