Bobcat and bear cub stories

I owe you all a huge thank you! I won the trail camera contest sponsored by Trailcampro.com, thanks to your votes!!!! It was announced on their blog. Thank you SO much for voting!

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I've had a lot of animals visiting my trail cameras lately. In particular, at least one bobcat has been extremely active on an animal path cut into a steep hillside. I believe that "she" has kittens in the area, based on how she's stayed in the same area for at least a month. When she catches prey, she carries it long distances, probably taking it to her kitten(s) in a den. We saw the same pattern with a bobcat last summer, and then we glimpsed the kitten for the first time at about this time of year. My eyes are peeled for cute kittens!

This bobcat has suddenly become very curious about the scents around bear marking trees. The bear tree is just behind the bobcat's shoulders. She is sniffing the area where the bears doubtless urinate as they mark their territory.

This is the part of her behavior that I've seen only once before. She appeared to rub her neck and face on the rock at the base of the tree.

A bull elk had been in the same spot a day earlier... perhaps his scent caught the bobcat's attention.

I took the bobcat behavior as one odd incident until it happened again about a mile away. Perhaps this bobcat is vigilantly marking her territory to keep other bobcats away while she raises her kitten(s).

Or, perhaps she is responding to the scents of other animals. The same spot has seen lots of bear visitors. Here are just two examples. This first bear ended his visit by sticking his face right in the camera (I showed you that photo a while ago).

This dark colored bear, one of the fatter ones in this drought year, seemed to be interested in the rose hips and other berries close to the ground in front of the camera.

The same spot has seen two mountain lions visit recently (now that I'm compiling the photos, I see what a great spot this has been for a trail camera).

Based on how many animals have hung out in front of this trail camera, I am wondering if the bobcat is reacting to their scents. I'll probably never know the answer but it's fun to speculate.

Here's the last wildlife story for today. There's been a very small and thin yearling bear cub in the area all summer. When I first spotted this yearling, I didn't want to show you photos because she was so thin that I feared that she wouldn't last long. She didn't look much bigger than a small Labrador.

To my delight and surprise, she is still around, and she looks a little better despite the fact that she's shedding her fur, probably in preparation for a winter coat. Our first frost is probably less than a month away so it's time for the animals to prepare for it. Here she is in late July.

And, again, very recently. She was feeling feisty during this visit, and gave my camera a thorough examination. She left a large scat, full of chokecherry pits, so she's finding food. Yay!

Well, this feisty little bear marched toward the next bear tree in the area, and she marked it!!!! I'll take that as a sign that she has energy to spare. Back during breeding season in June, she sniffed bear trees but didn't mark them.

I've compiled her visits to two cameras into a video. Her happy tree marking is in true video format near the end of the clip. If it doesn't run here, you can watch it at Youtube.

I'll get back to telling you our trip tomorrow, as we visited another very scenic place before we headed for home and I'd like to show you a few photos of it.

R says that any post must contain at least one photo of him. Here he is during our camping trip in the light of the setting sun.

Again, thank you so much for winning the Trailcampro.com contest for me with your votes!