A curious bear has become the surprise star of wildlife cameras in Boulder, Colorado, snapping hundreds of “selfies” in what appears to be an impromptu photo shoot, local officials said.
The city’s Open Space and Mountain Parks team set out to find animals living in the area using motion-capture cameras — but they were surprised to find that of the 580 photos captured with one camera, there were about 400 were from the same bear.
While the cameras often capture animals, including coyotes, beavers and black bears in the wild, officials said most creatures usually don’t notice the devices and just “walk by.” This particular bear, however, seemed captivated by the camera.
“In this case, a bear took a special interest in one of our wildlife cameras and took the opportunity to take hundreds of ‘selfies,'” Phillip Yates, a spokesperson for Open Space and Mountain Parks, said in a statement Thursday.
“These pictures made us laugh, and we thought others would too,” Yates said.
The cameras are activated when they sense an animal stepping in front of them and the images are used to map wildlife areas and to “give us a unique opportunity to learn more about how local species use the landscape around us, as we minimizing our presence in sensitive areas.” habitats,” Yates said.
While officials may not have expected photo shoots to be one of those uses, Yates said the images captured by the wildlife cameras could also be used to recommend measures to protect important natural areas.
Matteo Moschella contributed.