Between 2005 and 2007, USGS scientists studying black and grizzly bears captured video footage of the carnivores rubbing up against trees. Scent marking might be part of why the bears are exhibiting this behavior, but they probably just need a good scratch every now and then, too;
LiveScience also covered this behavior in a new article, saying the bears are "dancing," although it's definitely not as elaborate as this;
[ReBecca also covered this story in a bit more detail.]
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Those of you interested in the whole Australian mega-cats issue may recall my discussion of the Lithgow footage, filmed in 2001 by Gail Pound and her husband Wayne on their camcorder. I first saw the footage at a 2006 conference where it was shown and discussed by Australian cryptozoologist Paul…
Last year, in a paper published in the journal Current Biology, Jill Pruetz and Paco Bertolani reported on their observation of ten different chimpanzees thrusting wooden "spears" into holes in trees 22 times over the course of more than a year, presumably to stun bush babies that sleep in the…
A few bits of circumstantial evidence suggest to some that feral cats in Australia are now reaching enormous sizes, equivalent to that of a small leopard. This sounds incredible: how does the evidence hold up?
Tetrapod Zoology exists in a delicate balance. On the one hand I want to try and…
As we've seen with the last two movies featured here, there are some animals that naturally make good movie monsters. Sure, filmmakers might tack on a few feet and enlarge the size of their teeth, but sharks, crocodiles, and bears only require a setting and a foolish group of cast members potential…
Great minds think alike! I put a very similar post together last night for my Saturday post (complete with Disney clip - although a different one) ;)
So it seems the Disney animators knew about using the tree as back scratcher years ago. Nice.
Ha! On my small screen, I didn't see what the second clip was, but I was humming that song to myself as I watched the first. I had to laugh when it came up in the second!