June foraging for ant pupae - 08_08_2007A vole visited Holly but probably never touched her and she showed no reaction at http://viewpure.com/gII5CzYBOEk.
This 67-second flashback to August 8, 2007, shows June foraging for ant pupae without interference from Lily, Cal, and Bud who are probably nearby doing the same thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnyuBl9w4rk. The main sound is June sniffing out the ant colony, which probably means she is breathing a lot of formic acid from the disturbed ants (Family Formicidae). In a cloud of formic acid, bears don’t hang around once the pupae are eaten.
June foraging for ant pupae - 08_08_2007The link to the paper I mentioned last night didn’t work, so here it is again. Rogers, L. L. 1976. Effects of mast and berry crop failures on survival, growth, and reproductive success of black bears in northeastern Minnesota. Transactions of the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference 41:431-438. It’s the first paper ever written about there not always being enough food for bears, causing them to turn to human foods. It’s surprising in this day and age that this was once not known, but it is still something that is generally disregarded when talking about nuisance bears. Lily Fans know it, though.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center