This black bear wandered in front of a remote camera near the Quabbin
reservoir, earlier this June.
Hepatica Leaves
2 days ago
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Cool. I like the way the bear pauses and looks around a bit in that second clip. Could it have heard the camera?
ReplyDeleteI don't think the camera made a noise - the only noise it would make would be the IR filter sliding in or out of position, and that would be before the video starts recording.
ReplyDeleteBased on what I've seen other animals doing in other clips from this camera, I believe that the bear paused and looked up a game trail that leads further up the slope. Many animals came down this path and turned right up the hill.
p.s. Is there anything in the literature about divided wildlife highways, or one-way game trails? At least 75% of the animals were headed away from the camera on this trail. Maybe that's just Murphy's Law of camera placement.
Speaking of black bears, Lynn Rogers, a researcher who encourages habituation so that he can easily observe the animals, just had his permit pulled by DNR:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.startribune.com/local/213574481.html
DNR believes that habituation makes bears dangerous to people but Rogers disagrees, a debate which has been ongoing for some time. Check out this article for some details:
http://wildlifeconflicts.org/journal/fall2011/5_HWI_5.2_Rogers_p173-196.pdf
While I love the comparison to Jane Goodall whose work was extraordinary, it's hard for me to imagine that habituating bears is, in general, a good thing for bears. Not everyone is comfortable with wildlife up close and scared or angry humans often behave stupidly. And the bears always seem to lose.