Say ‘cheese’: Colorado bear uses wildlife camera to take 400 ‘selfies’
Jan 27, 2023, 11:28 AM
BOULDER CITY, Colo. — A black bear in Colorado is going viral after snapping hundreds of photos in front of a wildlife camera.
The images were shared by the city of Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parks program, which has placed nine motion-sensor cameras across its 46,000-acre land system.
“The motion-detecting cameras provide us a unique opportunity to learn more about how local species use the landscape around us while minimizing our presence in sensitive habitats,” said Will Keeley, senior wildlife ecologist for Open Space and Mountain Parks. “These cameras play an important role in helping OSMP staff identify important wildlife areas. The information we collect from them is used to recommend habitat-protective measures to help protect sensitive natural areas.”
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The cameras can capture video for 10 to 30 seconds. At night, they use infrared light to create photographs that minimize disturbances to nocturnal wildlife.
One Instagram commenter asked to see the other 390 “selfies” the bear took, while another praised the bear for being an influencer who “doesn’t use vanity filters.”
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials say the state is home to black bears, which are a species of bear. In Colorado, many black bears are blonde, cinnamon or brown.
With a nose that’s 100 times more sensitive than ours, a bear can literally smell food 5 miles away. During late summer and early fall, bears need 20,000 calories a day to gain enough fat to survive the winter without eating or drinking.
