Black bear tracks - April 18, 2012We wondered why Jo and Victoria had spent nearly 12 hours near a spot where trappers have deposited beaver carcasses in the past. We checked a few days ago and found nothing. They visited the same area briefly last night. With snow still on the ground, we checked again today.
Turkey vulture - April 18, 2012As we drove up, eagles, ravens, and turkey vultures flew up. One vulture remained for a picture. We checked for tracks. Just as we thought—bear tracks. Some big bear tracks. Several bears, plus wolves and a coyote. Down in the woods were a half dozen beaver skulls and some deer bones. Jo and Victoria have moved nearly a mile away now. Maybe the big bears were more than they wanted to deal with.
Beaver skull and deer clavicle - April 18, 2012
Overstep walk gait - April 18, 2012This is the time of year bears will eat carcasses around here—especially beaver carcasses. Forty years ago, we put a deer carcass outside the den of a mother with newborn cubs to see if a bear whose stomach was shrunken from 6 months with no food intake would eat it. She did. She ate nearly all of it before leaving the den area. A little later in the year (May 5) a radio-collared bear checked out a road-killed moose. We staked it out to see if the bear would eat it. Nope. By then, fresh young grass was coming up beside the road, and the bear ate that instead. But for now, this year, beaver carcasses are on the menu.
Loping gait - April 18, 2012Sue kicked into ‘tracking mode’ and snapped a few pictures of gait patterns. Black bears commonly walk in an overstep walk pattern—where the rear foot is placed ahead of where the track made by the front foot (as seen in the first picture). When they are in a bit more of a hurry, they switch to a lope as seen in the second. The individual tracks are labeled to help visualize foot placement.
A video of Jewel and cubs from April 14 is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpbb75PqwIo.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center