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Monday, July 2, 2018

Bear Mating Season Reaches a Peak

The third week in June saw feverish activity among the bears as mating season reached its peak.

Tiny continued to have his way with the sows. Actually, on the morning of June 15, he seemed very tired. He's been spreading his genes far and wide. He was with a smallish sow who seemed full of energy. As she walked into the forest, Tiny stopped to check a bear marking tree, perhaps still thinking about who his next "date" would be. As I watched him do this with every sow, I kept thinking that that a human female would have whacked him upside the head!

He and this sow disappeared for a 11 hours after my trail cam captured this footage. During that time, they walked a few miles (among other things) before arriving at another trail cam. The sow sniffed the bear marking tree.

Andy Tiny did a wild marking dance. Perhaps Tiny thought that his time with this sow was coming to an end so he exuberantly marked to attract the next sow.

He even pulled down a branch to rub it over his head - a classic Tiny dance move.
That was the last that I saw of this pair although I did see Tiny walking about on his own later that night and in the subsequent days.

Another pair walked along Black Bear Trail six days later. This is a big male bear but nowhere near as big as Tiny. The pair visited what is normally a water hole where bears love to bathe. Sadly, it is nothing but a pit of cracked dirt now due to our drought.

Bears visit this spot regularly, and they mark an aspen tree by the water hole (or mud pit). Here is the male sniffing the tree before marking it.

This pair appeared one more time at my favorite bear marking tree - the leaning tree. The sow sniffed it with little enthusiasm.

As the male arrived, he repeated grunted and then checked it out with great enthusiasm. You might remember that Tiny had to sit on the ground when sniffing this tree because he's so tall. This male is not as tall...

I compiled the travels of these two black bear couples into a short video. I hope that you enjoy it!

Just to pique your interest, my trail cam captured footage of an amorous pair of mountain lions the other day (I cannot believe my streak of good luck with trail cams!)... It will be coming up soon.

19 comments:

  1. We love watching the activities of the bears! Hopefully, there will be lots of little ones to see next year. Thanks, Tiny☺

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  2. Tiny is so big! They really mark their "area" on the little pines...
    Pretty cool. How many trail cams do you have???

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    1. They do mark the trees. Let's just say that I have too many trail cams!!! I'm in the process of getting rid of the older ones and replacing them with the newest model so my cam network in flux at the moment.

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  3. I love this peek into the bear lives. Sounds like there will be several new cubs in the spring. Good job Tiny.

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  4. It seems you found the 'romantic' areas for your cameras!

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  5. They are so amazing to see, it's like we're really there!

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  6. Your bear pictures and videos are so fun to see. We hope to see lots of little ones next year.

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    1. I hope for cubs next year too! I haven't seen any "cubs of the year" (coys) yet. I am hoping that they'll appear with their moms after mating season is over.

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  7. Hari OM
    All I can do is thank you for making these efforts to keep tabs on your 'neighbours' and bringing them to us!!! YAM xx

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  8. Ohhhhhhhhh thank you clapping wildly. It appears your cameras are on Prime real estate...location location location. Tiny it such a busy guy!!
    hugs madi and mom

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  9. you have been extremely lucky with your cam captures... and so is Tiny LUCKY I mean LOL so sad they have no mud hole to lay in, he sounds like he is crying

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  10. We sure do hope that Tiny had a very successful mating season:)

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  11. We sure hope to see some cubs after all this dancing and marking!

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  12. Let's hope there's enough food to support mum and cub. With this drought, there may be fewer cubs next spring.

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  13. What a wonderful peek in into the world of bear love ;-)

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  14. wonderful photos and video clips. Thank you for sharing these!

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Thanks for your comments!!!!!