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Season Watch Podcast sponsored by Sugar Lake Lodge
Season Watch

Bear hands are better than bare hands for climbing trees, eating ants

By Charlie Mitchell,
Heidi Holtan
Published August 28, 2026 at 11:29 AM CDT
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A black bear's paw lies on the ground while it is anesthetized for long term radio-collared bear research near Graff during March 2024.
Contributed
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iNaturalist user csledge
A black bear's paw lies on the ground while it is anesthetized for long term radio-collared bear research near Graff during March 2024.

Co-hosts Charlie Mitchell and Heidi Holtan enjoy learning about hungry black bears with Andy Tri, DNR bear biologist.

Send us a voice memo through Speak Pipe!

It's strenuous work for a bear to bulk up for winter - with a diet of 20,000 calories a day in the fall, they'll 'bearly' scrape by.

Andy Tri, the Bear Project team leader for the MN DNR, drops all kinds of fun facts during an interview with the KAXE morning show team, and highlighted during this week's Season Watch Podcast!

Co-hosts Heidi Holtan and Charlie Mitchell delight in his bear jokes, talk about the hawk migration (check out hawkridge.org), and enjoy our last summer report from Roots and Wings Forest School.

Attributions

  1. Red-tailed Hawk call by Christopher McPherson, XC691878. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/691878.
  2. Andy Tri's interview and the Roots and Wings Forest School report originally aired on KAXE.
  3. This episode was produced by Charlie Mitchell and Heidi Holtan.

Love the podcast? Have bear questions to ask? Let us know! Send us a voice memo through Speak Pipe!

Email us at seasonwatch@kaxe.org.

Tags
Season Watch Season Watch PodcastKAXENorthern MinnesotaPhenologySummer phenology
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Charlie Mitchell
Charlie Mitchell (she/they) joined KAXE in February of 2022. Charlie creates the Season Watch Newsletter, produces the Phenology Talkbacks show, coordinates the Phenology in the Classroom program, and writes nature-related stories for KAXE's website. Essentailly, Charlie is John Latimer's faithful sidekick and makes sure all of KAXE's nature/phenology programs find a second life online and in podcast form.<br/><br/><br/>With a background in ecology and evolutionary biology, Charlie enjoys learning a little bit about everything, whether it's plants, mushrooms, or the star-nosed mole. (Fun fact: Moles store fat in their tails, so they don't outgrow their tunnels every time conditions are good.)
See stories by Charlie Mitchell
Heidi Holtan
For more than two decades, Heidi Holtan has helped shape the sound of KAXE. Since joining the station in 2002 as a volunteer music programmer, she has worn many hats including the weekly book program, Realgoodwords, hosting the Morning Show, creation and host of the weekly call-in program Between You and Me, serving as Outreach Producer. Program Director, News Director and currently Director of Content and Public Affairs.
See stories by Heidi Holtan
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