I had a wonderful surprise on a trail camera a few days ago. Tiny, our biggest Black Bear, survived the winter. In fact, he appeared to have gone into his den with a lot of fat on his frame. He must have gained a huge amount of weight after we last saw him last fall.
He first appeared at a water hole where he has bathed many times since I first started observing him a decade ago. It's a reasonably deep water hole in which normal sized bears take full baths, even dunking their heads under the water. For Tiny, it looked like he was lying in a very shallow puddle. He just rested there for a bit, enjoying the coolness of the water.
When he left the water, he went to a marking tree that is less than 10 feet away. That was when I realized that his right hind limb is not all better (it was injured two years ago). He still marks while sitting, like he started doing about a year ago. If you watch the footage carefully, you can see that he's avoiding pushing on his right hind paw while marking. But, he does walk pretty well. He's learning how to live within his capabilities.
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I have a video of this magnificent bear in action. I hope that you enjoy it!
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteYYAAAAAAYYYYYYY TINY - WELCOME BACK MATE!!! Oh what a joy to see him again and looking really quite fit (aside from the slight gimp). I hope we get many more sightings &*> YAM xx
Jubilation, what a joy amid the Covid crisis to see Tiny return. XXXXX
ReplyDeletewelcome back!!! I love that the biggest bear has this name... that makes him eggs-tra special!
ReplyDeleteYay, Tiny! You sure are enjoying soaking in your watering hole.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to see Tiny again and he is really something!
ReplyDeleteOh hooray!! Momma and I are thrilled to see Tiny is back!
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see old friends. I love his name too.
ReplyDeleteHave a fabulous day. Scritches to the pups. ♥
I recall you were concerned that he might not have made it through the winter. I'm so glad he did! What a handsome bear.
ReplyDeleteYay Tiny thank goodness for your nice long hibernation to heal your paw
ReplyDeleteHugs Cecilia
Hallelujah So glad he is still around.
ReplyDeleteWonderful to see your footage. Thank you.
ReplyDeletehe is so big and so beautiful and i hope he is not in pain.. i wonder if THEY could trap him and let a vet look at his leg.
ReplyDeleteGreat news about Tiny. And how interesting (and wonderful) that he has survived what must have been a nasty injury.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see that Tiny is back and as big as ever. We can't believe he is over 10 years old! Is that old for a wild bear?
ReplyDeleteI was so very happy to see Tiny come up on my FB feed this morning...how awesome to see him looking so well!!
ReplyDeleteHoooray for Tiny! So glad to see him again.
ReplyDeleteOh, you made our day!!! We are so excited to see Tiny. This may sound strange, but he reminds me so much of Lightning. Just the way he moves his head, ambles along, eases his body down is so similar to my Big Boy Lightning. Maybe Tiny also had bad knees:(
ReplyDeleteYay! Tiny does look healthy! I remember being worried about him, and I am so glad to know that he's made it through another winter, and not letting that leg slow him down too much!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, Tiny! My, you're in great condition!
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Chris from Boise
Well this is a nice surprise! I'm glad Tiny is back. Sorry about his persistent lameness - I wish there was a way to tranque/examine/treat him. (Back when I was an undergrad, I didn't go into wildlife biology specifically because, after thinking carefully about it, I knew I'd always want to interfere with nature.)
ReplyDeleteOh this made our day. So happy he's alive and well.
ReplyDeleteIt is fantastic to see our favorite beat again.
ReplyDeleteLovely video - it was like actually being there because he behaved so naturally. Tiny is a beautiful bear :)
ReplyDeleteSuch happy news! Yay, Tiny.
ReplyDeleteI've been away for a few days, so I had to go looking over your posts to see if there was one about Tiny. So glad to see he survived, looking chubby at that. You can see that his leg hurts, but it looks to me like he's walking OK. Being so huge,I hope no one will mess with him during mating season. I don't know anything about bear mating season, but I hope he will be OK. He is magnificent.
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