We’ve reported recently that a flock (oops!  we mean a murder) of crows has been visiting ABR to avail themselves of the food provided for the cubs.  A friend who follows our Facebook page sent a fake, dead crow to our curator, with the message that she has used a similar item for many years and it works to keep the crows away from her garden.  In other words, it’s a good scarecrow!  Since the curators do not enter the enclosures unless there is an emergency, Curator Coy had to be inventive in the way he mounted the “dead crow.”  Here is what he did:

This is the very realistic-looking fake, dead crow.

Curator Coy mounted the crow on the end of a long, bamboo pole.

The crow hanging on a long pole.

He hung the pole from the observation tower, the place where the curators go to observe and photograph the cubs.

Pole with crow mounted on the observation tower.

Here is how it looks from inside the tower.

The installation of the crow on pole took just a few minutes, but it seemed to worry Eliza Bear.

Eliza Bear stayed up in her tree.

She appeared to be a bit curious, but also afraid. The tree was a safe place.

Her brother Andy had a different reaction.

Andy slept through the procedure.

Finnegan Bear was nowhere to be seen.  He may have been in the underbrush, foraging.  We hope that this “scarecrow” will keep the real crows away from cub food!