This Bear Sure Knows to Take a Selfie

More selfies than you average bear.
Boulder OSMP

You never know what you might capture with a wildlife camera. Maybe a coyote and badger acting like buds. Or human pranksters dressed as animals. Or 400 selfies from the same bear. 

The City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks team in Colorado uses a network of nine automated cameras across its 46,000-acre land system. One of those cameras caught sight of some entertaining bear antics. “Recently, a bear discovered a wildlife camera that we use to monitor wildlife across Boulder open space,” OSMP tweeted last week. “Of the 580 photos captured, about 400 were bear selfies.”

Recently, a bear discovered a wildlife camera that we use to monitor wildlife across #Boulder open space. Of the 580 photos captured, about 400 were bear selfies.🤣 Read more about we use wildlife cameras to observe sensitive wildlife habitats. https://t.co/1hmLB3MHlU pic.twitter.com/714BELWK6c

— Boulder OSMP (@boulderosmp) January 23, 2023

The bear incident happened in November of last year. Motion detection triggers these cameras, so that’s how one bear managed to snap so many selfies. “The information we collect from them is used to recommend habitat-protective measures to help protect sensitive natural areas,” said OSMP senior wildlife ecologist Will Keeley in a statement about the cameras last year.

Besides black bears (which don’t always have black fur), the cameras have caught sight of bobcats, mountain lions, owls and deer. It seems the bear, however, was more of a ham than the other critters. Forget duck face selfies. The hot new selfie pose is bear face.