Readers’ wildlife photos went missing yesterday, due entirely to my having lost Stephen Barnard’s email and asking him to repeat what he said about the sandhill cranes. But we have a special video feature by way of apology.
First, Lou Jost sent two videos taken on his reserve in Ecuador; you can get the skinny on these animals and the camera trap at his post on the Fundacion EcoMinga website. Here are the notes Lou emailed me:
Here are two videos we took recently, both taken by the same camera trap at the same location, one during the day and the other at night. Our reserve manager Juan Pablo Reyes was investigating our most recent forest purchase in our “Dracula Reserve” (named for the orchid genus Dracula) in northwest Ecuador. He put the camera in this spot because he noticed a tree that had bear claw marks on the trunk. He knew this would be a bear scent post. And indeed it was, as you can see a big Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus) first marking the tree by rubbing his back on it, then shaking rainwater from his fur like a big d*g.
When I took an OTS course in Costa Rica as a grad student, I was amused to learn that the Spanish words for “spectacled bears” are osos anteojos. “Anteojos,” literally, is “in front of the eyes”, which means “glasses” in Spanish. But somehow the rhyming nature of osos anteojos pleases me. And if you want to know why the bear has this name, this is what it looks like:
Lou found another beast passing the camera:
Then at night, an ocelot (Leopardinus pardalis) prowls the same misty path.
I couldn’t resist adding an extra video that Lou put on to his EcoMinga post, showing a huge leap by a brown-headed spider monkey (Ateles fusciceps fusciceps), a highly endangered species found only in northwest Ecuador. This one was filmed at a lower-elevation reserve by Marc and Denise Dragiewicz:
And, from regular Stephen Barnard in Idaho, we have some swell photos of courtship in Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis):
Mar. 26:
The male Sandhill Crane is doing a mating ritual, trying to impress the females with his dancing skills. Notice the twig he’s throwing in the air.
Mar. 28:
This guy won’t give up. I’m certain these are the same three I sent you photos of a couple of days ago. He must be worn out by the end of the day.
(Notice he still has a stick! Now what role could that play in sexual selection?)
Awesomeness on a Wednesday. Doesn’t get better than that!
I think that sometimes muhnkays (is that how to pronounce it)? sometimes miss their jump and fall. Glad this daredevil made it.
I think I know why the male crane might dance with twigs, but I will let others have a go.
I remember reading somewhere that significant numbers of gibbon skeletons show evidence of fractures suggesting that they occasionally misjudge their leaps.
I have to assume a fracture in a major limb bone for a Gibbon would be soon followed by death. Thus, the habitat and lifestyle of Gibbons drives adaptation of high acrobatic skill which requires thin, light, bones. So, when the occasional accident happens, the risk is high, but there is a balance struck.
It probably weeds out the old and the sick, who’d be more likely to make errors.
Gee, after all that work, did the crane get lucky?
That stick is the predecessor of the bling of today’s youth, the cigarettes of the past generation, etc
Wonderful show this morning.
I noticed the spider monkey seemed to be carefully measuring his moves before the jump. I figure there has to be quite a lot of knowledge of Newtonian mechanics going on in that little brain of hers. The branch she’s on is slim an flexible which means the push off has to take the physical properties into account. Totes awesomeness!
Good point. I think I see that just before the leap it backs off, gets the stronger part of the branch its on to bend down then spring up a little, then uses that little boost from the branch to help it in its leap. Clever.
Yes, it seemed to have an intimate knowledge of momentum and the mechanics of branches. That was not a straightforward brute-force leap, it was more like pole-vaulting.
It’s not unprecedented for objects to be used in mating rituals. The bowerbird is a spectacular example.
…human male teens with cars / cellphones / letter jerseys….
b&
Now, whenever I hear a car going down my street with bass amps full blast, haroomph..haroomph..haroomph, I’m going to imagine the guy at the wheel with a few twigs held in his teeth and one foot on the dash (fascia?) .
I think it continues well past the teenage years in many cases!
Wonderful images and films – thanks Lou and Steve. Make me wish I were out on the range in Idaho or in the forests of Ecuador rather than here in front of my desk!
That first bear is not just marking the tree with his scent – he’s also having a clearly very enjoyable scratch!
It seems to be more than just a little enjoyable. We have camera-trap photos of male bears actually getting huge erections when they do this back-rubbing!
Well, sure. That’s no coincidence. If scent-marking were an onerous chore, they wouldn’t do it. The pleasure of literally scratching that itch is the lever by which natural selection motivates them.
I always love the wildlife pictures, but these cranes are magnificent!
The bear video is just crying out for a bit of dry Attenborough commentary!
Good idea. If you care to narrate it, I would be happy to attach it to the video in my editor.
Beyond my skills, I’m afraid!
Delightful.
The stick means “Look! Look! I can build a better nest than anyone else”.
I’d fall for him.
Are they monogamous, I wonder – so the lady who chooses him is his for life??
Yes, it is common for Sandhill Cranes to mate for life. My kids and I have been observing a mated pair for the past three years or so. Lately we have been watching them raise their second pair of chicks. The chicks grow very quickly.
The whole family (of cranes) go on foraging walks together roaming over quite a large area. The parents have become so acclimated to my daughter that she can walk with them, as close as if she were part of the family. But they don’t trust any other humans to be within about 20 meters of them, if your careful and indirect.
The parents seem to share the child rearing fairly equally. They are almost always together.
Oddly, Sandhill Crane chicks are called “colts”.
Does the coloring of the “spectacles” on the osos anteojos vary significantly between individuals, with age, or seasonally (or some combination of these factors)?
Love the videos and the sandhill crane photos!
The spectacle pattern is highly variable regionally, and individually within regions. We can identify individuals based on this, so from our camera trap records, we know that we have at least eight different bears using our Cerro Candelaria reserve, and at least six different bears using our Rio Zunac reserve.
Cool bears, I’ve never heard of this species. Are they aggressive and/or dangerous? I can’t tell how large they are.
They are about the size of black bears, but broader. They can kill tapirs and cattle for food but are mostly vegetarian. A mother with cubs can be aggressive, and one such mother recently charged some farmers in our area. But the charge turned out to be a bluff.
Thanks for the added info Lou.
The first sandhill crane photo is genuinely spectacular. I love it. I wish I had an oil painting of it. A metaphor of a male seeking acceptance from what looks be two females. And they are figuring out if he’s got anything to offer. I love it.
Wonderful stuff! 🙂
He won’t give up. It’s his shtick.
Thanks for the photos today. Awesome! I had no idea Sandhill Cranes performed mating rituals like this. He looks like an acrobat. The two onlookers don’t seem to be impressed, but at least he has their attention.
And that is one giant leap for monkey-kind.
Even knowing beforehand where spectacled bears are from, my northern-focused brain kept saying “something’s not right here, bear’s in the wrong forest”. similar to my first meeting of an armadillo (deceased) in Kansas City (What the hell are you doing here?!) we don’t have black bears in this part of the state yet (or, again I should say) but seeing two in the wild for the first time, while hiking the Ozark Highland Trail in Arkansas was the highlight of my outdoor experience, as well as being one of the most terrifyingly exciting experiences. I admit, being alone, I hiked a few more miles past where I was going to camp that night, otherwise I’d not have slept a wink. Lovely photos and videos, quite envious of you guys and your life experiences.