Do you have an outdoors photo or video to share? Send it to pwarner@bangordailynews.com and tell us, “I consent to the BDN using my photo/video.”
Black bears in Maine aren’t fond of humans. That’s the reason we don’t see too many of them out and about — at least not for long.
That reality doesn’t apply to trail cameras, which can be set up in bear territory and provide videos and images from a perspective we would never be able to see if we were just walking through the woods.
Lucky for us, Allie Ladd of Byron takes considerable pains to scout locations and place trail cameras that give us all a behind-the-scenes look at the state’s beautiful bruins.
This video is a compilation of bear footage that Ladd has collected in recent months. It begins with a hungry bear searching for food back in March, when pickings are slim for the animals.
We then get a nighttime look at a sow and its small cub making their way along a trail in search of some snacks in July. The young one, which appears tiny behind its mother, would have been born five or six months ago, during the dead of winter.
That takes us to a scene on a hill where a larger adult bear stands on its hind legs and rubs its back on a tree. The exercise only lasts about 13 seconds, but it seems enough to get the job done — whether scratching an itch or leaving scent on the tree.
Three days later, in the exact same spot, a sow and its two cubs pass by. These bears don’t seem to notice or have a need for the back-scratching tree.
Thanks again to Allie Ladd for his work in the field capturing wildlife videos and his generosity in sharing them with Bangor Daily News readers!