Within the mountains of Peru, the place historic cloud forests meet the Amazon Rainforest, an Andean bear made scientific historical past. For 4 months, a digital camera collar captured the wild male’s each day life, revealing behaviors by no means earlier than documented within the Southern Hemisphere’s solely bear species, from treetop mating rituals to surprising acts of cannibalism.
The examine, printed in Ecology and Evolution, supplies a bear’s-eye view of life in certainly one of South America’s steepest and wettest terrains and marks the primary time this expertise has been used on the species.
“For 15 years, I’ve been touring up and down that valley and by no means seen a bear,” Andrew Whitworth, govt director of Osa Conservation and co-author of the examine, advised Mongabay. “So, the prospect of capturing a bear was fairly insane. … These are simply sheer partitions of cloud forest.”
Ruthmery Pillco Huarcaya, a Nationwide Geographic Explorer and the examine’s lead creator, led the analysis workforce. She says her work to guard the Andean bears of Peru is impressed by the legends of her Indigenous Quechua heritage.
Guardians of the Andes
Andean bears additionally maintain profound cultural significance in Andean communities. “In Andean Quechua tradition, Andean bears are often called Ukuku or Ukumary. The Ukukus are legendary beings, half-human and half-bear,” Pillco Huarcaya advised Mongabay in a textual content message. “I want individuals knew that Andean bears are the guardians of the mountains and important ambassadors for the conservation of cloud forests, their major habitat.”
To higher perceive these mountain guardians, in 2023, the workforce deployed digital camera collars on three wild Andean bears (Tremarctos ornatus) in Peru’s Kosñipata Valley. The primary two collars have been pilot research that used Nationwide Geographic’s CritterCam. Nevertheless, the examine relies on only one longer-term collar worn by a male bear for 4 months, revealing many behaviors scientists have by no means seen earlier than.
The footage challenged long-held assumptions about Andean bears being solitary vegetarians. As a substitute, it confirmed them as social creatures, having each peaceable and aggressive interactions with different bears.
Love within the Cover
Throughout his 4 months below remark, the male bear engaged in two exceptional courtship intervals. The primary, a weeklong encounter in December 2023, documented one thing by no means earlier than seen: Andean bears mating within the tree cover. The bears have been filmed coupling excessive above the bottom in not less than eight video clips. A second feminine encountered the male in March, although no mating was recorded.
“There appears to be these form of very intimate moments when he’s with a feminine and so they’re hanging out in the identical tree, simply each other,” Whitworth stated. Whereas Andean bears have lengthy been thought-about solitary, the footage confirmed the pairs remaining collectively for days at a time and sleeping subsequent to one another, suggesting their social lives could also be extra advanced than beforehand understood.
The bear’s agility within the cover wasn’t restricted to mating. The bear was additionally filmed feeding 20-30 meters [65-98 feet] up into the highest of a Cecropia tree. “I bear in mind being actually shocked after we noticed this,” Whitworth stated. “These are fast-growing, very spindly, hole timber that snap actually simply, and we see this bear 30 m up feeding on seeds. Holy smokes!”
Bears will likely be bears
The footage additionally revealed that Andean bears aren’t purely vegetarians however have an omnivorous conduct typical of different bear species. Digital camera collars caught them consuming bugs and meat together with fruit, bromeliads and even stinging nettles.
In a single stunning discovery, the collared bear was recorded feeding on the carcass of a woolly monkey (Lagothrix cana), the primary documented case of an Andean bear consuming a primate. 9 video clips captured the sequence of occasions, displaying the bear first with the monkey’s carcass on the bottom earlier than carrying it into the tree cover, the place the primate’s hand was clearly seen. The footage suggests the bear found the already-deceased monkey whereas foraging quite than searching it.
Much more dramatic have been two cases of cannibalism caught on digital camera. In mid-November 2023, only a month earlier than his mating season, the bear was recorded feeding on a lifeless bear cub over three days, beginning with the top and shifting to the abdomen.
In a second incident on New 12 months’s Day 2024, after a protracted journey crossing the Kosñipata Valley, the bear was filmed within the cover consuming what gave the impression to be the partially eaten carcass of one other small bear.
Whereas cannibalism has been beforehand reported in Andean bears in Ecuador, this could possibly be the primary documented case of infanticide in Andean bears, a conduct identified in different bear species. These movies counsel these bears could also be extra much like their northern cousins than beforehand thought.
“If you take a look at all the pieces that we’ve recorded,” Whitworth stated, “you understand it’s similar to another bear.” This straightforward remark may be the examine’s most profound discovering, Whitworth stated. Beneath the thriller and mythology, Andean bears are simply bears being bears.
How you can catch a bear
Collaring an Andean bear in Peru’s steep cloud forests required ingenuity and persistence. The workforce used an “Iznachi entice,” basically a big field with a guillotine-style door that drops when a bear enters to take the bait. However first, they needed to get the entice into place.
“We needed to design it the place it was in panels that could possibly be put in your again, and you might hoist these massive metallic panels out by these mountains,” Whitworth stated. “It was fairly harmful.”
Working with a neighborhood mechanic, they created a conveyable model the workforce might carry in items and assemble on-site. Every entice was linked to a satellite tv for pc transmitter that may instantly alert researchers by way of e-mail when triggered.
The method of truly catching a bear required cautious preparation. “You don’t arm the entice at first; you type of need them to simply get used to coming in for the bait,” Whitworth stated.
Utilizing digital camera traps, the workforce spent a yr figuring out the place particular person bears frolicked earlier than making an attempt any captures. This allowed them to focus on particular animals whereas avoiding females with cubs. The entice’s design ensured solely bears might set off it. “It’s so heavy that pulling the prongs from this massive door is definitely actual arduous for an animal to do,” Whitworth stated. “If a fox comes, they’ll nibble on the meat, however they’re not sturdy sufficient to drag it and set off the entice.”
As soon as a bear is caught, the groups head to the sphere to immobilize it utilizing a exact mixture of medication. Through the immobilization, veterinarians carried out well being evaluations and fitted a collar with GPS monitoring onto the bear.
Monitoring expertise
The collars are designed to be launched remotely by way of satellite tv for pc, usually after about three months. The researchers wait till the bear is in an space the place they suppose they’ll retrieve the collar, then ship a sign to fireplace a launch mechanism. Nevertheless, the method isn’t at all times easy.
“The issue is that collar has been on the bear for a couple of months, and a bunch of gunk can simply form of maintain it closed,” Whitworth stated. “So generally you don’t discover the collar within the place the place the discharge went. It may take two or three hours to wiggle off, and the animal might have moved kilometers.”
Even after efficiently monitoring a collar’s location, retrieving it from the precipitous terrain proved its personal journey. Throughout one restoration try, a swollen river separated the workforce from their quarry. The answer emerged from the neighborhood itself.
“Ruth employed a bunch of the native individuals and we constructed a makeshift bridge to form of scramble over this raging torrent,” Whitworth stated, highlighting how native information and collaboration typically proved essential to the venture’s success.
After retrieving the collar, researchers anxiously waited to see if the info have been efficiently recorded. Regardless of these challenges, the workforce has had been largely profitable in recovering their gear. Throughout their broader mammal analysis program, they’ve retrieved 19 out of 20 collars deployed on varied species.
This excessive restoration charge helps justify the steep price of the expertise, round $5,000 per digital camera collar. The examine authors argue the funding is worth it when put next with the entire price of bear analysis.
The larger problem, Whitworth famous, is making this expertise accessible to researchers in tropical areas the place many poorly understood species stay. He stated that monetary assist from Nationwide Geographic and Rolex allowed the workforce to take dangers on costly expertise, “however for lots of researchers within the International South, these dangers are unattainable until they’ll get entry to the sources.”
Past the technical and monetary challenges, the footage provided one thing distinctive: a glimpse into how an Andean bear experiences its world. Whitworth describes the marvel of seeing from a bear’s perspective, noting that the bear would generally cease at a vista and look out over the panorama, very like people do on a hike.
“He’ll be strolling after which hastily, he’ll simply cease in some lovely a part of the Andes and look out over the river and the valley,” Whitworth stated. “He’s in all probability smelling and his environment, however you get the concept that he’s seeing the land, in some respects, how we see it. It’s fairly unbelievable.”
Seeds of survival
Nevertheless, understanding Andean bear conduct isn’t simply amusing. These massive mammals play an necessary function within the ecosystem, consuming seeds after which dispersing them over massive distances. This service helps keep the immense biodiversity of the cloud forest, an ecosystem vital to the water cycle of your complete Amazon Basin.
But the bears’ important function within the ecosystem is in danger. Listed as threatened by the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Crimson Listing, there are estimated to be fewer than 20,000 Andean bears left within the wild.
The species faces pressures from a number of instructions. Because the local weather turns into hotter and drier, their habitat is pushed upward. On the similar time, human actions like farming are shifting in from above, leaving the bears much less room to roam.
“Sadly, I don’t see issues bettering for Andean bears anytime quickly,” Whitworth stated. “There are some scary predictions about cloud forest loss below present local weather warming situations.”
This squeeze on their habitat forces bears to adapt their actions and conduct. They hardly ever keep inside a nationwide park, as a substitute passing by a number of protected areas and neighborhood lands—generally raiding crops or in very uncommon instances preying on livestock. This could result in retaliatory killings by native individuals. Digital camera footage paired with GPS monitoring can assist researchers and communities perceive why bears are going to neighborhood lands, what dangers they take, and maybe learn how to keep away from conflicts.
Group conservation
In response to those challenges, Pillco Huarcaya’s workforce can also be working to develop their neighborhood engagement efforts, reworking their area station into what Whitworth referred to as a “neighborhood conservation campus.”
“My work with kids has had a big affect on how the neighborhood views Andean bears,” Pillco Huarcaya stated. “Via our ‘Conservation Ambassadors’ program, kids go to the Wayqecha Organic Station to study concerning the bears and the cloud forest. Lots of them didn’t find out about Andean bears earlier than, and now they see them as mates that must be protected.”
Regardless of the challenges, Whitworth stated he stays cautiously optimistic. The behaviors captured by the digital camera collars reveal the bears’ intelligence and flexibility. “If there’s a species that may change quick and study rapidly,” he says, “it’s a bear.”
Quotation:
Pillco Huarcaya, R., Whitworth, A., Mamani, N., Thomas, M., Condori, E., (2024) Via the eyes of the Andean bear: Digital camera collar insights into the lifetime of a threatened South American Ursid. Ecology and Evolution 14(12) doi: 10.1002/ece3.70304
This article by Liz Kimbrough was first printed by Mongabay.com on 6 December 2024. Lead Picture: Andean Bear (Tremarctos ornatus) in Parque Nacional del Rio Abiseo, Peru. Picture by Pedro Peloso courtesy of Nationwide Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Amazon Expedition.
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