The monsoon rain this year was hit or miss and so any water source, no matter how small, benefited the animals. Not just for drinking, but for attracting prey species including insects and small mammals. These water sources also offered an opportunity to cool off from the intense desert heat. This bear visited the spring several times over a week, drinking his fill of water and then laying in the water to nap and cool off.
Tag: Biodiversity
Little bear antics
Bears are still out and fattening up in the Sky Island mountain ranges in Arizona. This sow and her cub visited the bear wallow for a swim several times over the last couple of weeks. It won’t be long before they find their cave and curl up for the winter.
Bear cub antics
It was a nice surprise to check this trail cam today and find that a family of bears visited the spring-fed wallow. Momma bear was just trying to relax, but her two cubs had different ideas.
A mountain lion rests at a desert oasis
This mountain lion has been caught on my cameras on and off for nearly a year. The drainage she frequents also supports javelina and white-tailed deer, primary food sources for mountain lions in this region. When I was going to check the cameras, I came across the carcass of a deer fawn that was partially eaten and cached. I suspect that the mountain lion had very recently killed and eaten part of the fawn and was relaxing by the waterhole with a full belly.
Little Bear cools off
It’s been a pretty dry monsoon season so far here in the Sonoran Desert. The main waterholes used by local wildlife in my area are drying up due to sparse rains. The low water level at what we’ve been calling Little Bear Pool didn’t stop this black bear from taking a soak to cool down. Thankfully, more rain is forecasted for this week.
Backyard Mountain Lion
It was an exciting thing to see a mountain lion had passed through the yard on July 10th. In the 11 years I’ve lived at this location, my cameras have caught only one other mountain lion in the backyard. I believe this is the same young male mountain lion that was trapped at Tucson Medical Center two days later. Game and Fish radio collared the lion and released him. I’m hoping one of my wild trail cams will catch him again at some point.
Last night’s backyard Wildlife
It was a busy time in the backyard last night. A bobcat, coyote, and raccoon came through as well as smaller critters including a packrat, cottontail, and the screech owl fledglings. All four screech owlets appear in the last clip of this video. It’s good to see they are doing well in life after the nestbox.
Bear wallow heaven
This bear takes some serious down time to relax in his private pool…
Owlet nestbox action
There are a few interesting things going on in this video: gular fluttering, nictitating membranes, and head bobbing. Owls and other birds use gular fluttering to stay cool when the temps are high. Owls nictitating membranes (essentially a second eyelid) help protect their eyes when attacking prey. Lastly, head bobbing (motion parallax) helps owls triangulate their sight on a given subject since their eyes are fixed in their skull and cannot move on their own.
Puma Concolor
Mountain lion, cougar, or puma, this big cat is pretty stunning in her physique and lifestyle. All muscle and articulate movement when moving through her environment searching for prey and water. This particular cat showed that she also has habits of sorts, like us, in that she pretty much mirrored her visit to the waterhole two days apart. One visit during the day, and one during the night.
My Earth 