Amazing Nature

While observing the behavior of marmots, we get the chance to see all kinds of wild animals such as porcupines, woodpeckers, robins, chipmunks, ground squirrels, foxes, coyotes... but if you are very lucky... amazing bears!

I was doing my observations as I do every day, but on this particular morning, the marmots were just flagging their tails and sitting next to their burrows. Marmots are very vigilant but even if they are just laying on their bellies, they are aware of all what is going on around them.

Suddenly all of the marmots were starring at one same point, I was wondering...what are they looking at? and I told myself to look-up because there might be something big around!

This was the first time I had ever seen a wild bear, but more amazingly, it was a mommy with her three cute and big cubs walking just by the other side of the river! I was so excited that I could barely grab my camera. But I did it! and so, this is the proof of what I saw:

Photo: Adriana Maldonado

Bears are usually vegetarian, but they also eat small mammals. I have yet to see a bear eat a marmot, but Dirk Van Vuren, another researcher here at RMBL, found that predation accounts for 98 % of mortality during a marmots active season (spring, summer & fall) and that bears are on list of predators; anyway, the marmots I was watching didn't seem to be afraid of these bears--but perhaps they should have been!