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View Full Version : a bear spotted near top of Katahdin in Maine!



DavidNH
07-08-2015, 16:27
http://bangordailynews.com/2014/10/01/outdoors/baxter-bear-climbs-katahdin-in-search-for-food-startles-hikers/?ref=relatedBox



I would never have believed it had I not read about it in a reputable source. I guess bears will go anywhere for food!

One more reason why it is important to carry you all your food from that summit picnic and above all.. don't feed the birds or anything else!


David

Ashepabst
07-08-2015, 17:18
wow, what a pretty bear!

rocketsocks
07-08-2015, 19:24
I forget just now where I saw this before, but a show ran about bears going up high to eat/gorge a particular moth that nested high up on a mountain side.

Feral Bill
07-08-2015, 19:32
I forget just now where I saw this before, but a show ran about bears going up high to eat/gorge a particular moth that nested high up on a mountain side.
Sounds like grizzles in Glacier. This looks like a black bear starting SOBO.

rocketsocks
07-08-2015, 19:39
Sounds like grizzles in Glacier. This looks like a black bear starting SOBO.
Yes sir it do.

Water Rat
07-08-2015, 19:56
Yes sir it do.

Well, except for the fact that the picture was taken last September and that article ran in October 2014... ;)

I think that SoBo would be up past his bedtime and would also have a hard time making it through the Whites due to his start date. :D

rocketsocks
07-08-2015, 20:04
Well, except for the fact that the picture was taken last September and that article ran in October 2014... ;)

I think that SoBo would be up past his bedtime and would also have a hard time making it through the Whites due to his start date. :DYes Mam it do.

Water Rat
07-08-2015, 20:06
Maybe he's doing a Flip-flop hike?

Pedaling Fool
07-08-2015, 20:15
I forget just now where I saw this before, but a show ran about bears going up high to eat/gorge a particular moth that nested high up on a mountain side.I remember hearing that also, but couldn't remember what type bear (nor could I remember the moth species), but as it turns out it's mostly the grizzlies in the Rockies, but an occasional black bear will feast on the moths, but probably gets chased away by the grizzlies. http://www.yellowstonepark.com/2011/06/yellowstone-grizzly-bears-eat-40000-moths-a-day-in-august/

Excerpt:

The most common moth in the west is called the miller, and it is the adult of the army cutworm. Researchers are just now starting to understand the intricate relationship between this supposed-pest and bears, but that relationship is very important.

Each summer, moths of the army cutworm fly into tall mountain rocky slides, where they burrow away from the intense mountain sunlight into dark crevices. Hundreds of thousands of them. These moths come from farmland many miles away to these high, remote mountain slopes in Yellowstone.

At these places of slide rock and sunshine, both grizzly and black bears (http://www.yellowstonepark.com/natural-wonders/wildlife/bears/) gather each year, climbing high above timberline to feed on the moths. The bears will dig through the slide rock and eat the moths that they uncover. It is estimated that some 40,000 moths per day can end up in the stomach of a hungry bear.

While fat in the diet is not the best thing for humans, it is important to bears. A single moth has a high enough fat content that it accounts for as much as a half a calorie. That means that 20,000 calories of just moths per day can be consumed by a rock-turning grizzly bear.

Researcher Hillary Robison has spent several summers in the high mountains around Yellowstone National Park, observing bears digging for moths.
“It’s kind of like a salmon stream,” says Robison. “We’ve seen bears feeding within several hundred yards of each other and they seem to tolerate each other.”

Usually, it’s grizzly bears that use the high mountain slopes for moths, but once in a while, an occasional black bear will make its way up into the high country above the protection of the forest below.

Robison remembers one of them. “He was digging up moths and they were flying up and landing on his forearms and he was licking them off his forearms,” says Robison. “And then he wandered on and kind of took a nap for most of the day.”

Robison is doing research on the moths in Yellowstone to see how far they come from farmlands to the high mountains. This could provide important information for bear managers, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all things. Poison an ocean and one decimates a salmon stream; spray pesticides on farmland, and one could be destroying a whole crop of bear food.

Since these moth sites are very high and very remote, this means that bears concentrating on these sites during the summer aren’t down in the valleys getting into trouble. As importantly, the moths provide a crucial food source in the face of declines of other bear foods.

“If they are spending a month up in these Yellowstone moth sites in the summer, they could eat close to half their needs for the year,” said Robison.

adamkrz
07-08-2015, 20:30
It's really Jennefer Pharr Davis In a bear suit ready to stop Scott from breaking her record.

rocketsocks
07-08-2015, 20:40
I remember hearing that also, but couldn't remember what type bear (nor could I remember the moth species), but as it turns out it's mostly the grizzlies in the Rockies, but an occasional black bear will feast on the moths, but probably gets chased away by the grizzlies. http://www.yellowstonepark.com/2011/06/yellowstone-grizzly-bears-eat-40000-moths-a-day-in-august/

Excerpt:

The most common moth in the west is called the miller, and it is the adult of the army cutworm. Researchers are just now starting to understand the intricate relationship between this supposed-pest and bears, but that relationship is very important.

Each summer, moths of the army cutworm fly into tall mountain rocky slides, where they burrow away from the intense mountain sunlight into dark crevices. Hundreds of thousands of them. These moths come from farmland many miles away to these high, remote mountain slopes in Yellowstone.

At these places of slide rock and sunshine, both grizzly and black bears (http://www.yellowstonepark.com/natural-wonders/wildlife/bears/) gather each year, climbing high above timberline to feed on the moths. The bears will dig through the slide rock and eat the moths that they uncover. It is estimated that some 40,000 moths per day can end up in the stomach of a hungry bear.

While fat in the diet is not the best thing for humans, it is important to bears. A single moth has a high enough fat content that it accounts for as much as a half a calorie. That means that 20,000 calories of just moths per day can be consumed by a rock-turning grizzly bear.

Researcher Hillary Robison has spent several summers in the high mountains around Yellowstone National Park, observing bears digging for moths.
“It’s kind of like a salmon stream,” says Robison. “We’ve seen bears feeding within several hundred yards of each other and they seem to tolerate each other.”

Usually, it’s grizzly bears that use the high mountain slopes for moths, but once in a while, an occasional black bear will make its way up into the high country above the protection of the forest below.

Robison remembers one of them. “He was digging up moths and they were flying up and landing on his forearms and he was licking them off his forearms,” says Robison. “And then he wandered on and kind of took a nap for most of the day.”

Robison is doing research on the moths in Yellowstone to see how far they come from farmlands to the high mountains. This could provide important information for bear managers, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all things. Poison an ocean and one decimates a salmon stream; spray pesticides on farmland, and one could be destroying a whole crop of bear food.

Since these moth sites are very high and very remote, this means that bears concentrating on these sites during the summer aren’t down in the valleys getting into trouble. As importantly, the moths provide a crucial food source in the face of declines of other bear foods.

“If they are spending a month up in these Yellowstone moth sites in the summer, they could eat close to half their needs for the year,” said Robison.



Yup, that's the one.

Sarcasm the elf
07-08-2015, 22:13
To see what he could see...

bangorme
07-10-2015, 20:16
More likely blueberries. There is a large blueberry patch up there and they fruit much later than those at lower altitudes.