EDMONTON – It looks like bears appreciate a good back massage as much as humans do, many even a little more.
Their tree-rubbing ways are just some of the animal antics shown in a YouTube video that’s been watched close to two million times since being posted by Alberta Parks less than two weeks ago.
The footage was captured on one of 250 wildlife cameras in the province’s national parks. Not only did park officials have to look through countless hours of footage to pick the best “candid camera” moments, but some had to travel quite a long way to retrieve them.
“To be able to access our cameras sometimes we do trips that are 15 days at a time; and we have river crossings, and we’re carrying a lot of equipment with us – so that means that horses are often the best way to travel,” explains Brenda Shepherd, a conservation biologist with Jasper National Park.
“Some of our cameras take eight, nine days to get to, so visiting them once a year is about all that we can manage.”
Still, she says it’s a big improvement over the point and shoot cameras that were used in the late 90s. Those would need to be changed once a week.
The current wildlife cameras work in temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius, snapping a series of photos when they detect animals’ body heat. Since the cameras go off without a flash, they’re able to photograph wildlife in their natural habitats without disturbing them.
That allows researchers to better monitor wildlife populations, learn about how they’re distributed in the parks, and watch all kinds of animals in action.
A common sight: animals interacting with so-called “communication trees.”
“We often call them bear-rub trees but they’re used by many different species to try and communicate with one another,” Shepherd says. “And often times you’ll actually see the indentations in the moss where, you know, hundreds of bears have walked in the same footprints to get up to this tree.”
The trees will often be located at junctures in trails frequented by wildlife. And if you look closely, you might be able to see hair coating the bark, which will often be rubbed smooth.
Shepherd adds that researchers are still trying to understand what function these communication trees play.
Whatever it may be, social media is opening up the once private behaviour of wildlife to a broader audience.
“People are intrigued, this is what wildlife does when we aren’t around,” says Shepherd. “These bears are doing what is natural to them and that’s not something we get to see. We don’t get to see animals behaving the way they behave without us there, and I think that’s the real allure of the cameras.”
With files from Laurel Clark, Global News
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