Our Puro ranger Jordy Salazar, together with rangers Fausto Recalde and Santiago Recalde, ran into this Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus) near the border between our Naturetrek and Cerro Candelaria reserves. The bear first seems to threaten/bluff our rangers, and then moves slowly through the trees, not very nervous. This is a big improvement over my first encounter with a Spectacled Bear in that area, in the late 1990’s. In my encounter the bear was so scared that it fell out of its tree and ran away at full speed. Our protection of these bears for the last sixteen years has made the difference.
If you listen closely, the bear in the video is calling softly. This is similar to one of the sounds of an online recording of a Spectacled Bear calling for its cub, so maybe there was an unseen cub traveling with our bear:
Naturetrek Reserve was financed by donations from Naturetrek to the World Land Trust. Puro Coffee supports ranger Jordy Salazar through the World Land Trust’s Keepers of the Wild program. Fausto and Santiago are also supported by this program. Thanks to their work, the birds and animals in our forests are feeling more confident and are easier to see than they used to be. With bears, though, we have to maintain a little fear of humans, for the bears’ own safety, in order to minimize conflicts between bears and local people.
(source: Lou Jost, Fundacion EcoMinga, https://wp.me/p1OXtz-1A2)
