Video: Voyageurs Wolf Project
Tracking cameras help monitor wildlife in their natural habitat at home — capturing candid footage of animal behavior when they think no one is watching.
However, sometimes this behavior is the dumbest of pranks.
Just ask this cheeky little bear cub.
A tracking camera from the Voyageurs Wolf Project recently got into an adorable (albeit rowdy) encounter with a local cub in a Minnesota forest.
The baby bear apparently found the camera equipment while out for a walk with his mother and decided to go to war against it.
Seemingly accustomed to her son’s destructive tendencies when his mother started her career, the cub fought the camera – repeatedly dashing towards it with the courage of an older child.
Even seasoned researcher Thomas Gable, project leader at the Voyageurs Wolf Project, was taken aback by the cubs’ brazenness.
“When I first saw these shots, I literally laughed out loud,” Gable told The Dodo. “I didn’t expect this at all, it was so funny to see the cubs not doing well. Then I re-watched the footage four or five times out of hilarity and thought, ‘How lucky are we to get this?’”
Although the camera was temporarily out of use due to this adorable attack, it wasn’t completely destroyed, thank goodness – opening up the possibility for a sequel.
The scenes captured by the Voyageurs Wolf Project’s cameras are of course as diverse as the animals themselves—and everyone is welcome. Even the noisiest of them all.
“This is certainly not the first time a bear has messed with our cameras, and it certainly won’t be the last!” Gable said. “Real curiosity and interest in the natural world motivates almost everything we do.”
