Tiny the Black Bear Survives a Stick Impaled in his Leg

Back in mid-May, I saw something disturbing on my trail cams. Tiny, one of our biggest male black bears, had a stick impaled in his hind leg. Look closely at his right hind leg/rump.

Then, two days later, he walked past with the stick gone but an obvious open wound.

At first, my footage of him showed no limp and plenty of energy. However, by 3 weeks later, he looked terrible. He'd clearly licked the area extensively and the fur there was very thin. He had a painstaking limp, and he was not marking trees that he'd normally mark dramatically.

I was worried. My guess was that he had an infection. I wished that I could somehow give him an antibiotic. I laughed at myself for even thinking such a thing.

Then, he disappeared for a full 8 days. That is extremely rare during mating season. I worried even more.

Then, to my utter delight, I found footage of him on a couple of cams. I could still see some evidence of thin fur on his hind end but it was already much better. It's molting season too which probably helped that to improve quickly. Plus, he was walking nearly normally, and he was marking trees again!

I made a video of the various stages of his saga. At the end, he was walking "normally". By that, I mean that he was walking like a bear near marking trees in mating season. He was using a gait sometimes called a "cowboy walk". It's a way of grinding his paws deep into the dirt to leave maximum scent from his paw pads.

Near the marking trees, there are bear tracks which are impressions of exactly where every mature bear who passes that spot places his/her paws. It's extremely hard to see or photograph but it's easy to feel. For a bear as big as Tiny, he has to shorten his stride to hit the right spots. Plus, he swings his hind legs out to the sides as he walks when he's in these tracks - the "cowboy walk".

After all that technical stuff, the main thing is how relieved I am that Tiny is okay. We have two main male bears in our neck of the woods, and they've ruled for about a decade, as far as I can tell. I'm glad that this spring was not the time that we lost one of them.

Here's the video.

I'm a very happy bear observer today!

Dancing Bears in Autumn

I know that winter is almost here when I start finding Shyla soaking up the warmth of sun puddles.

This is the time when the vegetation around us turns brown, readying itself for freezing air and snow.


It's also the time of year when bears have one last flurry of activity. On 10/2, a bear approached a sad bear-marking tree. It's "sad" because mountain bikers decided to widen a trail, and they cut off all its branches. It's just ahead of the bear in this photo.

These marking trees are so important to bears that they keep marking them, even after humans have denuded them.

This is a beautiful sow!

A few miles away, trail cams captured other bears marking trees like crazy. A small sow first marked a tree. Then, Milton Sr. did his own dance. Milton Sr. is the long-term big male of our area. He was badly injured a few years ago, and another big male ("Tiny") tried to take over the territory. Since then, they've both patrolled the area, often getting into "marking wars" where one marks over the other one's scent as often as they can. That happened in this video.

If you need a good laugh at the bear antics or just want to see some wild bears in action, enjoy the video!

Happy very late autumn from the Rockies!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

The beauty of this season astounds me.

Wild Roses...

A bear named "Socks" for her black legs who I've known since she was a cub and is now on the mating path... (see post from five years ago when Socks was driven away from her mom). I will show you videos in the coming days showing that Socks will probably be having Tiny's cubs this winter (Tiny is our huge male bear). We are seeing the circle of life from cub to mother.

 But, to my eye, none of the beauty surpasses the happy face of Shyla in a field of wildflowers.

What a time of year!

Tiny the Black Bear - Marking and Mischief

There's so much going on at home that I'm going to step away from the desert trip for a moment to give you a bear update.

You may remember Tiny, the biggest male black bear I've ever seen, who rules our neck of the woods during mating season (usually around June). We caught our first glimpses of him on 5/25, when he trekked many miles marking every black bear "whammy" tree in the area. I have video cams at most of those trees so I got some fun footage plus some still photos.

He came back a few days later to discover that all his amorous messages had gone unanswered, except for a response from a bobcat who leaped onto a tree that Tiny had marked. Then, the bobcat rolled around at the foot of the tree, leaving his own scent mark.

It is fascinating to me that different species respond to each other's scent messages. I've learned from experience to go look when Shyla marks a certain spot. On more than one occasion, I've found that she had the audacity to pee over top of a mountain lion's scrape! I guess that it's good to listen to your dog if you want to know what's been happening in the forest around you.

When Tiny returned to the most important marking tree to discover that no sows had left replies and that a BOBCAT had answered his messages, he seemed to get mad. He attacked my camera, believe it or not! The camera endured the attack but Tiny left it pointed the wrong way after he finished sniffing and clawing it.

The compilation of these videos reinforces for me the fact that fascinating animal communication is happening in the forest around us, although we usually have no idea of what is being said. You can watch the video here or at Youtube.

I still haven't captured any trail cam footage of the sow and cubs who were in "my" den this winter. Very soon, I will go peek to see if they are still near the den. If they're not, I will bring home all the footage of mom and tiny cubs from the winter and spring.

Have a Beary Happy Tuesday!

A Water Hole in Summertime

Shyla and I tend to stay in the bright open areas of the forest and meadows during our outings.

At the same time, there's a wilder part of the forest where the animals are carrying out their daily routines. I've learned that water holes are active places in the forest, especially in the summer.

If I were to place a trail camera on any random tree in the forest, I could go a whole year without getting a photo of a single animal. In contrast, if I find the places that attract animals like water holes and bear marking trees, my trail cameras see far more activity.

I mentioned earlier this summer that I'd found a new water hole. It seems to attract all sorts of wildlife. In the video that I'm about to show you, it attracted Tiny, our huge black bear, and it also attracted a mountain lion. I believe the mountain lion is a female who might have kittens in the area. She's been appearing on my cameras far more frequently than most mountain lions, suggesting that young kittens are stashed somewhere nearby.

You can watch the video here or at Youtube.

I think it's interesting that bears love to soak in the water while the mountain lion seemed only interested in drinking (and possibly waiting to see if any prey came to the water hole). I wonder what a coyote would do? I am quite certain that dogs would splash around and get soaked in it!

Happy Independence Day

Happy 4th from us to you!

Stay safe from the loud booms.

And enjoy the beauty of summer!

Sharing our World

I am astounded that it is already 4th of July weekend.

While I sometimes complain about the rain, it is keeping the wildflowers blooming - and that's a wonderful thing!

It's getting to the time of year when bear food, like berries, should start flourishing. However, the usual foods are not appearing yet. For example, every year about now, buffalo berries usually turn deep red and weigh down the branches of their bushes. However, this year, I don't even see green berries yet.

I am hearing rumors of bears trying to find food near houses, and people calling for the trapping and "euthanizing" (i.e., shooting) of bears. It makes me sad and angry. Should a bear be killed because it followed its nose to the food that you left outside? I think not.

I wish that people who choose to live in the mountains would take responsibility for the wildlife with whom they share the habitat. For the sake of bears, that means locking down all food sources, and taking responsibility if you make a mistake that lures a bear close to your house.

To be honest, I fear for our biggest bear, Tiny. He's such a huge bear that he scares people far more than other bears. And the descriptions I've read of sightings make me fear that he's continuing to go near houses. My heart sinks when I imagine a world without Tiny marking trees and fathering cubs in our neck of the woods.

I am hoping that the voices of reason - the voices that say that we need to learn to live with magnificent animals like Tiny - eventually sway public thought. I am hoping that the obvious brute strength of Tiny doesn't mean that he is killed by humans.

I, for one, want to share my world with the wildlife, even the ones who have the physical capabilities to kill me if they so choose. In fact, today, I almost crossed paths with a mountain lion. I found her photo at a trail camera, and it showed that she'd been there just minutes before me.

I never saw her today, although she was probably nearby. For me, it's wonderful knowing that these large predators can share the world with us, being invisible ghosts of the forest when they want to be.

Happy Friday!

The Return of the Big Bears

While we had fun in the desert...

The bears were waking up back home. Our big male bears were starting the mating ritual of marking certain special trees to tell receptive females that they were back in town.

For those who have followed this blog in past summers, you might remember "Tiny", one of the biggest males in our neck of the woods.

In fact, he's so big that he almost was too tall for my camera set-up. He was vigorously rubbing his back on a small pine tree. It's a tree that bears have marked every spring and summer for a long time.

These "chosen" trees never grow to full size because the bears break off the top of them every year.

A few days later, another key male bear showed up. I believe this is "Milton Jr.", based on the white blaze on his chest that you'll be able to see when he's on his hind legs. I call him "Jr." because he's a bit smaller than another very similar looking male who usually shows up a little later in the season.

See the white blaze?

He's always been a "creative" tree marker, using his paws a lot to rub branches across his fur, thereby getting his scent on even more of the tree.

I think he spotted the trail camera here. He looked straight at it as he marked.

I felt so happy when I knew that both Tiny and Milton Jr. had survived another year and returned to their stomping grounds.

Then, just yesterday, Tiny marked the same tree again.

He is an incredible specimen, so tall and strong.

He showed us the sole of his hind paw as he walked away from the tree.

Unfortunately, the video cameras that I'd set up before our trip, pointed at bear marking trees, all malfunctioned, primarily due to a vandal who messed with them. They're now back in position and ready to capture the next dances by these bears and the females who will soon join the parade.

Although the mountain weather has been dismal (rainy/snowy and cold for weeks), I still have an extra spring in my step knowing that the bears are starting their yearly ritual that is such fun to monitor with trail cameras!!