Days of our animals

Many of you asked about R yesterday. He is feeling much better! Our vet says there's been an epic outbreak of GI infections due to a plethora of standing water with bacteria growing in it. Yes, R has been known to take a slurp from almost any body of water including muddy puddles!

K is feeling good too, standing tall with storms behind her. I had planned to take her for an alpine hike today but the stormy weather and my back pain deterred me. I hope that we get up high sometime soon.

My health has been the biggest problem in the past couple of days. My fused neck and lower back are hurting more intensely than usual. Fortunately, I've found treasures at my wildlife cameras to distract me while I hope that the electric pain passes.

This is a gorgeous buck with velvet antlers. His facial fur looks a bit too thin and his face looks scarred. However, otherwise, he looks super healthy!

A bear visited a couple of cameras. Mating season is over so the ursine obsession with marking trees has waned (although they'll still mark trees occasionally all summer and fall). Now, the bears are focused on getting as fat as possible before fall hibernation. Believe it or not, most bears keep losing weight through mating season. It's only now, months after emerging from hibernation, that they'll start to lay down fat for their winter sleep.

In this season, unlike mating season, even adult bears notice my cameras. I'm pretty sure that my scent near the camera caught this bear's nose because he was already turning toward my wildlife camera when the first photo was snapped.

Then, head down, he oriented fully toward it. You can see his soaking wet fur. He'd been out in one of our intense afternoon thunderstorms that roll off the Divide almost daily in mid-summer.

He started sniffing the area.

He sniffed the area some more. Perhaps he recognizes my scent since I visit all the nooks and crannies of our forest!

Finally, he decided that it was time to move on without ever looking directly at the camera. That leaves no doubt in my mind that scent, rather than the sight of the camera, was what drew him toward the camera.

One of my goals with these cameras is to map out the routes commonly used by our carnivores, including black bears. I finally put together another piece in the puzzle. About 0.4 miles away, this bear turned off the main path and headed up a gully.

Again, he took interest in the area around my camera.

He decided to take a seat near it, looking down the gully like my camera does.

He was very relaxed. Obviously, the presence of my scent near the camera didn't upset him. He settled in for some scratching.

After scratching his chin with his hind paw, the bear ambled away. I don't know where he went next. That'll be the next piece in the puzzle for me to untangle. The lives of our wildlife are a never-ending mystery for me to contemplate.

I love my wildlife cameras. They give me glimpses into what the animals are doing during each phase of the year. One of my favorite parts of living in the mountains is sharing the forests with fascinating animals.