The video is too dark for most people to guess what is going on, but I believe "Taught" caught Holly removing her foot pads. It’s January. The time is right. And Holly was persistent in what I thought was licking and biting the foot pad that she kept turning toward her mouth. You can tell me if this is wishful thinking or if you are guessing the same thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4Grv_84Dps. In my paper on that I said I didn’t know if bears did that in southern states with much briefer denning periods. Even though Holly came from Arkansas, she has northern Minnesota genes from the bears that were shipped there from here back in the 1960’s. So the mystery of what happens in southern states continues. Here’s what I wrote back in 1974 with a picture of a partially shed foot pad. Rogers, L. L. 1974. Shedding of foot pads by black bears during denning. J. Mamm. 55(3):672-674. Click on the title to see the whole 3-page paper.
Then came the most exciting sight out the window of this 4th of January—the bobcat. He could see me at my desk a few feet away and was looking at me. He watched as I aimed the camera and turned off the inside lights to get rid of reflections in the window. That made it harder for him to see me. He looked thoughtful for a few seconds and then calmly walked down the steps and under the front deck. Twenty minutes later, he was back (6:20 PM). He looked at me a lot, then turned his attention to every other direction, letting me turn off the lights without him noticing. He looked frequently up where I had a Christmas turkey back with some meat on it. After a couple minutes, he leaped up, came forward with his eyes on me, and then lifted the turkey back, leaped down, and was gone. I’d been hoping I’d see him outside my window at my level, and he came though.
Thank you bobcat.
And thank you all for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center