19 August 2021

Life on a game trail in northern Minnesota


I've walked lots of game trails in the woods of north-central Minnesota and always assumed they were created and "maintained" by deer, but this video from Voyageurs NP up at the Canadian border suggests that bear and wolves are more common than deer.

In this 15-minute synthesis of a year's activity, everything is pretty much ordinary and predictable, until the filmmaker smears ?peanut butter on a sapling (4:34).  Thereafter the change of activity illustrates how extensively wildlife depend on scent in their environment.

Of interest to me is that the cougar at the 15:14 mark appears to have a defective tapetum lucidum.  I wonder if it is obscured by a ?cataract in that eye.  Any ideas?  Via Neatorama.

5 comments:

  1. I loved this! I agree ~ a cataract, or an old injury could have caused the tapetum lucidum problem ~

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  2. i think they smear a scent of some kind. you can see everyone stopping to sniff and mark that sapling after that.

    most enjoyable for me? the bears marking by standing upright and rubbing their backs against the tree and sapling. the higher they can reach indicates their prowess. also, the four bears ambling along. did mom have triplets? and the youngsters learning to mark.

    the surprise - that 'cat'! thanks for pointing out that is a cougar - a very skinny one, it seems.

    I-)

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  3. If you've got that many wolves up there, it must be a pretty healthy ecosystem.

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  4. The moose was gorgeous to see!

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  5. Looks like a bobcat, not a cougar at 15:14 . .

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