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Friday, December 30, 2016

The Last Bear of 2016!

Our last bear wandered the paths in our forest in early December. Now, he's gone to bed just like all his brethren.

I have footage of his last days of wandering. It's remarkable how slowly he was moving as his metabolism wound slowly down toward hibernation.

Early on 12/3, he started walking on bear trails, albeit very slowly. I first picked up his image at a bear-marking tree. He sniffed it...

... and sniffed it some more.

Before leaving, he showed us the snow matted in his rump. I think he'd been sitting someplace for a while before he walked to this tree.

Just a little later, I found his tracks. On this remote road, he loped along the left edge, I rode my snow bike in the middle, and a rabbit hopped along the right of the road. We all left our tracks.
I captured video footage of this bear at several sites over the next 36 hours. He visited several bear-marking trees and then came to my house! That made me laugh after I'd had fun tracking him the previous day.

We have a bear-proof bird feeder that the local bears all know is truly bear-proof and rarely visit. I don't think that this bear was a local bear so he spent a long time on his hind paws staring up at the food over his head. His slow pre-hibernation behavior was markedly different from the behavior of the only other bear who visited back in May.

I hope that you enjoy the video!

13 comments:

  1. Goodness, he was up late. Lol. Good night bear.

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  2. Do the dogs not hear him and bark when he's so close to the house?

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    1. In the summer, they always hear the animals that are outside the house. In the winter, they sometimes do but not always.

      I was quite surprised to see that he'd been here at an hour when we were certainly awake but we didn't notice the white flash going!

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  3. Goodnight Smikey see you soon
    Lily & Edward

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  4. love the picture of the three different tracks!
    hugs
    Mr Bailey, Hazel & Mabel

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  5. He's really moving slow.
    We laughed at the bear proof feeder.
    He sure gave it a try though.

    Astro

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  6. I wish I had that excuse, "oh, I'm just getting ready to hibernate...that's why i'm so slow and sleepy!!"

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  7. Great pictures. Those bear paw prints are very impressive. It was nice of him to come visit you so you did not have to keep tracking him.

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  8. That's really cool. My daughter and her husband live at the base of the Rockies. No bears have wandered down there but there is a cougar that occassionally wanders the street at dusk.

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  9. Now all he needs are some fancy ribbon streamers and he would do a May Pole Dance. Slow and steady, and off to bed we go.Thanks for sharing this wonderful part of your life, I cannot imagine how it must be to have these magnificent animals at your back door. Happy New Year for tomorrow.

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  10. Love the video, and oh my gosh,, those bear tracks are huge!
    love
    tweedles

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