Wildlife camera accidentally captures hundreds of adorable ‘bear selfies’
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Zoe Sottile, CNN
(CNN) — Unbearably adorable.
A wildlife camera in Boulder, Colorado, captured about 400 “bear selfies” after a curious black bear started investigating the camera.
Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks posted a few of the charming snaps on Twitter Monday.
“Recently, a bear discovered a wildlife camera that we use to monitor wildlife across #Boulder open space,” wrote the park system. “Of the 580 photos captured, about 400 were bear selfies.”
Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks operates 9 cameras around its 46,000 acres of land. The motion-activated cameras snap a still photograph when they sense movement from an animal, and then take videos between 10 and 30 seconds long, according to an August news release from the City of Boulder.
Information from the cameras help park staff learn about wildlife behavior and protect crucial areas of their habitat, according to the release.
“The motion-detecting cameras provide us a unique opportunity to learn more about how local species use the landscape around us while minimizing our presence in sensitive habitats,” Will Keeley, senior wildlife ecologist for Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, said in the release.
“These cameras play an important role in helping OSMP staff identify important wildlife areas. The information we collect from them is used to recommend habitat-protective measures to help protect sensitive natural areas.”
The City of Boulder tells CNN there are no known grizzly bears in Colorado, just black bears. According to a 2015 report published by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, gauging the size of the black bear population in the state is difficult due to the “solitary and elusive” nature of the species. The department said the “conservative estimate” was that there were between 17,000-20,000 bears in the state.