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That's so unsatisfying! We should be able to radio track the collared bear from the movie, & we had been doing so successfully all fall, winter & spring. But then a logging operation moved in to harvest timber in the private parcels that encroach into the basin near her territory & she vanished. Jennapher & I tried again to track her last week with no success. Hopefully she will return now that the cut is completed & the noisy, heavy equipment is gone.

Then this morning, a geology student surveying rocks in the upper basin spotted a lot of sign, including a fresh den down along the creek. Next, she stumbled on the bear itself--a big cinnamon one--crunching around in the thick alders. Fortunately, she was able to withdraw before alarming the bear.

Even though it wasn't the same one, it's nice to know that the logging didn't chase all the bears away.

I shot as much as I could, then sort of worked out the conflict in the edit. The comedic aspect is something that I didn't plan, but it was hard to miss after seeing the way the bears seemingly thumbed their noses at us.

I got the idea of animating the camera-trap stills, then thought that some circus-y music would match the images well. Initially, I put some title cards in as place-holders until I could find someone to do the V.O., but then I started to like the cards--a friend said they reminded him of a Buster Keaton film, which was right in keeping with the theme--so I kept them in & dressed them up a bit to emphasize the point.

Wildlife photography is challenging! I live at the field station, so I was available to drop everything & run up the hill with Jennapher whenever she checked the trap or received a signal. There were a lot of fruitless trips, but it really gets the adrenaline going when a bear finally arrives.

They certainly are clever scamps--they'd ignore the trap until she tripped it to leave for the day, then come in & tear everything apart to get at whatever bait was left. You could look at the camera trap pictures & almost see them scratching their head, saying "Oh, I get it!".

I mostly make short science documentaries about research & education occuring at UC Berkeley's Sagehen Creek Field Station.

Please check out my films & leave a comment or review.

FF