Black bear caught napping in a bald eagle’s giant nest on Alaska military base

A black bear takes a nap in a large bald eagle nest in Alaska. — Researchers surveying eagle nests discovered a black bear (*Ursus americanus*) sleeping in one in every of them. (Picture credit score: Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Cayley Elsik, JBER Environmental Conservation))

A black bear has been caught napping in an unlikely spot: the nest of a bald eagle. Researchers got here throughout the sleeping bear whereas surveying eagle nests on a army base in Alaska.

Black bears (Ursus americanus) are identified to often reap the benefits of eagles’ architectural work — and these invasions spell bother for the birds and their younger, in keeping with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

“Previously, just a few eagle nests have been raided by black bears with predictably dangerous outcomes for the nesting eagles,” FWS employees wrote in a Fb submit on July 21, including that these incidents typically end in younger birds going lacking.

Bears sometimes eat eagles’ eggs and nestlings, stated Steve B. Lewis, a FWS wildlife biologist who led the nest surveys on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) army base in southern Alaska. “It is laborious to say how a lot bears invade eagle nests as a result of we do not (cannot) spend that a lot time monitoring to see it occur or have cameras to witness it,” Lewis instructed Reside Science in an e mail.

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Throughout a helicopter survey in Could, researchers noticed a feminine bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) incubating an egg on the nest later occupied by the sleepy bear. Per week later, the egg had been omitted within the chilly whereas each the feminine eagle and her mate busied themselves close by.

“It wasn’t clear if the nesting try had failed or if the feminine was simply taking a break from incubating,” Lewis stated, including that males would often take over from females to maintain the egg toasty, particularly in cool locations like Alaska. For that cause, Lewis suspects the nest “failed” within the spring, lengthy earlier than the bear crawled into it.

A female bald eagle watches over her nestling in their nest.

Bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) are Alaska’s largest resident hen of prey and construct big nests. (Picture credit score: Bettmann through Getty Pictures)

Bald eagles are Alaska’s largest resident birds of prey and have wingspans of round 7.5 toes (2.3 meters), in keeping with the ADFG. These raptors construct the biggest nests of any North American hen, with some nests measuring 8 toes (2.4 m) throughout and weighing greater than two tons (1.8 metric tons).

These big nests may present secure resting locations for black bears that often make “beds” on very steep slopes the place different animals cannot disturb them, Lewis stated. “This nest is not that far off from such a bear mattress. It may have simply occurred to climb the tree and determined to take a nap.”

Fishy smells wafting down from the nest may have lured the bear. Eagle nests will be “moderately smelly,” as a result of the fish adults catch for his or her younger typically go uneaten. “Usually that meals is not totally consumed and finally ends up getting stomped into the nest or laying on the facet and rotting,” Lewis stated. “Bears have unimaginable senses of scent so maybe a bear is interested in the smelly nest.”

Bald eagles have been listed as an endangered species throughout the U.S. in 1978, after their numbers plummeted because of habitat destruction, unlawful taking pictures, pesticides and poisoning, in keeping with the Alaska Division of Fish and Sport (ADFG). Stronger protections have allowed populations to get better and monitoring is ongoing to evaluate the impression of different human disturbances, akin to tourism and oil spills.

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