Ouch. This Is What Happens When You Spy On Andean Black Bears (Video)
Andean Black Bears don't like being photographed.
Movie stars aren’t the only ones willing to break a camera to stop someone from snapping a pic without permission. A group of Andean black bears recently attacked a camera trap in a Bolivian cloud forest set up by the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The animals likely attacked the cameras because they saw them as “big flashing toys,” easy to destroy, researchers said. One hit the camera with enough force to leave it shattered and dangling from the tree.
[video:189616|caption:Andean bears attack camera trap. Video courtesy of the Wildlife Conservation Society]
Researchers are monitoring the bears’ distribution, behavior and abundance in a protected region of cloud forest. They are the only species of bear native to Latin America and their habitat has been increasingly diminished and fragmented by agriculture, grazing lands and human settlements that could harm this vulnerable animal.
These animals are also known as “spectacled” bears because the light fur around their eyes makes them look like they are wearing glasses and perhaps they could’ve used some glasses. The reason researchers know it was the bears that battled and bludgeoned the equipment is that the creatures didn’t find all of the recording devices.