A Night with Tartan Bear

Posted on   April 30, 2022
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Category  :  Bear Feature Stories & Photos

On this night, Tartan stayed in a relatively small area, and didn’t use his customary tree branch for sleeping. Instead, he stayed near the resting platform, on it or under it. In the wild, bears do opt for different kinds of sleeping arrangements, sometimes in trees and other times in daybeds on the ground.

There he is – thanks to the plaid arrow. Not quite ready to sleep yet.
After a while he went up on the platform to sleep.
Later, he moved underneath the platform and slept below the hammock.
When daytime came, he was still under the hammock, and swatted at it from below.
It was a lazy kind of playing. Tartan didn’t expend too much energy.
He roused himself to forage for whatever was nearby.
And then – PLOP! Down he went!
If there is one thing we can say about this little bear, it is that he’s a champion snoozer!

But of course, we’ve see him eat, too, so we must share this piece of ABR news about a Top Secret invention of the curators, to protect those vulnerable little saplings that try to grow in the enclosures. They have tried several protection plans, and the bears always defeat them. So this time, they are hoping that the intelligence of the animals will actually work in favor of the curators’ plan.

Curators hope that previous experience with electric wires that surround the enclosure will cause them to avoid this fake wire. Time will tell.

It is a known fact that bears have very well-developed intelligence, including excellent memories. When a little yearling like Tartan touches the electrified fencing around the enclosure, as they do within the first day as they explore their new surroundings, it zaps them and they remember it. They don’t repeat the mistake. So the curators rigged this fake electric wire around some of the saplings to try and protect them from the murdalizing tendencies of young bears. If you have followed ABR for a season or more, you are familiar with the cubs and yearlings and their destruction of saplings. Will this new plan work? Our fingers are crossed. Watch this space.