Andean Bears Hate Paparazzi

[Lars Holst Hansen]

Just noticed this on Petapixel and thought I would share...

[youtube][/youtube]

See more at
http://www.wcs.org/press/press-releases ... razzi.aspx

[tiger hunter]

Well, that's what happens when the cams are not 'bear proofed'.....! All it takes is a little more work and effort...something I take very seriously...I have both elephants and bears; heck, I once had a tiger bite into my cam but he left it after finding a hard aluminum shell firmly bolted to the tree more than ten years ago...got a bunch of pics of the inside of his mouth; it was all teeth...! I kept the little roof that dislodged and fell to the ground with a deep tooth gouge mark as a keep-sake..still got it. That was back in the days of film trail cams...!

[wolvenkinde]

Yup - them bears can do some damage. I have been lucky with the couple thousand close-up, in-your-face pics of gaping maws, teeth, claws, eyes and very little damage. I have found that the looser I secured the camera the better off I was and be sure to NOT leave any lure/food scent on the cam. Often I have several pics of them moving the camera around the tree, licking and testing it a bit. Only one has ever been ripped of the tree and only one has ended up with a hole in it(Fresnel)....but they sure do like to change the camera angle for me. I have seen other guys cams that looked like they had been smashed with a sledge-hammer though. I am of the opinion that when the cam is loose and they can move it around they are less likely to smash it up or work on it as much. When I had the cams secured tighter was when they seem to get ticked off and give it more of a beating.

[Woody Meristem]

Like Tiger Hunter, mine are all in metal boxes -- I use steel air conditioner disconnect boxes that fit over the waterproof Pelican 1020 and 1040 boxes. And, like wolvenkinde's there have been lots of photos of eyes, noses, inside of mouths and other super close-ups of unidentifiable bear parts.

[Lars Holst Hansen]

We actually had a polar bear chew on one of our research trap cams this season - a Reconyx like the one getting mauled in the video above. It did make a tiny hole in the fresnel lens but that was all. Unfortunately I did not fix it and the camera later got partly filled up by horizontal rain and sleet. I was amazed how it kept on working with half the lithium batteries in a semi-frozen mess. Unfortunately the camera was NOT set to motion detection but only time-lapse in considering of the field workers working there.

[cameratrapcodger]

My pet peeve is the interpretation that the bears "don;t like getting their pictures taken", which of course is baloney. They love getting their pictures taken -- okay. that's also baloney. Why not just say they are curious. Sorry for being stodgy. That what happens when you get to be a codger.

[Lars Holst Hansen]

You are very right! WCS should know better than to phrase it like this but they also have journalists and PR people to twist things... It is total BS and a shame that the true reason - curiosity of predators is not conveyed.

It is actually mentioned later:

“Andean bears are very curious animals,” says Dr. Lilian Painter WCS’s Bolivia Country Director. “But they are also very strong, and the cameras are like big flashing toys. Still we were able to record important images that will allow us to better understand their distribution, abundance and behavior, and conserve these delightful bears into the future.”

I will contact WCS through the contact details in the press release:
http://www.wcs.org/press/press-releases ... razzi.aspx

CONTACT:
STEPHEN SAUTNER: (1-718-220-3682; ssautner@wcs.org)
JOHN DELANEY: (1-718-220-3275 jdelaney@wcs.org)

and state my opinion about this.

[tiger hunter]

At almost $500 a pop for a Reconyx trail cam, it seems like a total waist of money if they are not protected...and the Reconyx company does have steel boxes to prevent destruction like this...but never mind, they have the big 'DONATE' your money scattered all over their website (s)...it's the first thing you see when you visit....and my take on this: think before you throw your money away for senseless donations to an organization that can't/won't protect their cams even if their aim is to save wildlife...! Maybe they thought it was cool to see the bears ripping the cams apart, who knows..? I guess it must grow on trees for them and is no problem to utilize other people's donation money foolishly....and it ticks me off when I see stuff like this...!!

...enough said...!!!

[tiger hunter]

And furthermore, there is another so-called 'big cat' group (a spin-off from the other group) with the same agenda...it all about DONATIONS...they have their ivory tower office up on Wall Street in New York City with huge rent and big salaries for the staff and big expensive programs that really do not go anywhere except the wildlife data they can gather to justify their existence...does not make any sense but I guess that's what happens when they become 'movie stars', it's another ball of wax...! Science alone cannot protect the forests and wild animals...something they preach all the time...!

In the meantime, the world's big cats slowly disappear and all the false statements and wool pulled over people's eyes is what is happening (by their media programmers)....and trust me as I have been around both of these groups and watched them work....!! And all their policies and TV 'eye-wash' and false statements is not going to cut it...they are for the most part just self-serving and that's what it boils down to...!!

And finally, I'm not against research; it's just part and parcel of the overall picture but it is the way some of these so-called research groups carry on their business...End of story.....!!!

[Lars Holst Hansen]

Thanks for your notes on this, Bruce!

I hope most of the conservation organizations do conservation not only for the money, and projects can be expensive, so donations may be important.

In Denmark there is a big debate rolling at the moment as the former prime minister spent a lot of money traveling on first class in his present role as leader of a governmental environmental organization. Badly spent money is off course not OK and it gives a bad "taste" and makes the public feel that there is no idea in setting aside money for green development, conservation etc.