If you’ve ever wanted to experience the world as a bear, then boy do we have a treat for you. Remarkable footage has captured the lives of Andean bears, also known as spectacled bears, like never before. Using collar cams (like the ones people love attaching to their cats), a team with the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Amazon Expedition have been able to witness never-before-seen behaviors for these elusive animals, and some of them are quite surprising…
The footage was captured thanks to GPS-enabled collar cameras that could be attached to wild bears and capture a “bear’s-eye view” of their day-to-day lives. This kind of insight is invaluable for a species like the Andean bear, Tremarctos ornatus; they’re particularly difficult animals to track down and study as they roam high up in the Andes and outlying mountain ranges from Venezuela to Northern Argentina, including Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia
“What we’ve been able to learn through the use of the collar cameras completely changes the way we study Andean bears,” said National Geographic Explorer Ruthmery Pillco Huarcaya in a statement provided to IFLScience. “In a relatively short period of time, it has opened up an exciting window into the world of this enigmatic and iconic species. Informed by these findings and continued research, we can better improve conservation efforts by providing invaluable insights into the behavior, natural history, and ecological needs and benefits of Andean bears.”
The footage captured by the collar cameras would be combined with GPS readings and accelerometer data to build a complete picture of what the bears were up to, and it picked up a whole bunch of novel insights along the way. Notable scenes included:
- The first recorded incidents of Andean bears mating in the canopy
- The first recorded case of geophagy (eating soil and clay) for Andean bears
- The second recorded case of an Andean bear eating a non-human primate
- Possibly the first case of an Andean bear cannibalizing a cub, which may be the first evidence of infanticide for these animals
My, Paddington, your relatives have been busy.
When they’re not eating marmalade or cubs, Andean bears appear to enjoy a wide variety of plant species thanks to their expansive range.
Image credit: Pedro Peloso, National Geographic
The project has revealed critical information about what these animals eat, with the footage capturing over 21 plant species on the Andean bears’ menus (watch until the end if you want some Porcelia ASMR). This plant diversity is an indicator of their altitudinal range of 200 to 4,000 meters (656 to 13,123 feet), where they play a crucial role in maintaining the health of the Amazon’s cloud forest ecosystem. By eating all these plants and pooping out their seeds, the bears passively regenerate the forests as they migrate, demonstrating how crucial their survival is to the entire ecosystem.
“These new insights into Andean bears provide us with a chance to better understand one of the ecosystem engineers shaping the cloud forest and use that knowledge to more effectively protect this keystone species and their habitat,” said Ian Miller, Chief Science and Innovation Officer at the National Geographic Society, in the release. “That is what the work of the Perpetual Planet Amazon Expedition is all about – using cutting-edge technology to enrich our scientific understanding of the wonder of the world and drive innovative solutions to protect our planet.”
The study is published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
Source Link: Incredible "Bear's-Eye View" Videos Of Andean Bears Reveal Never-Before-Seen Behaviors
