This Wild Bear Uses A Stone To Exfoliate, Photo Confirms Bears Use Tools
In last night's Indiana episode of Finding Bigfoot, a witness claimed that he saw a "Bigfoot" using rocks to crack mussel shells in a creek. The man swore that it wasn't a man. After Matt confirmed that there were definitely mussel shells in the creek, the team concluded that it was neither a person or a bear (Because bears don't use tools?).
This new report from New Scientist says that at least one bear was spotting using a tool. It's the first time a bear's ever been observed using a tool. It was spotted by Volker Deecke of the University of Cumbria, UK, who was on holiday in Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park. The bear was observed using two different rocks to scratch its skin! It was performing this action for minutes at a time.
From New Scientist:
IT IS impossible not to scratch an itch, so it's no wonder this brown bear reached for some help. It was seen scratching its skin with rocks – the first bear definitively known to use a tool.
In July 2011, Volker Deecke of the University of Cumbria, UK, was on holiday in Alaska's Glacier Bay national park when he spotted a brown bear in shallow water. The animal picked up a small, barnacle-covered rock, turned it around a few times then rubbed the rock over its face for a minute. It repeated this with another rock (Animal Cognition, DOI: 10.1007/s10071-012-0475-0).
The bear was moulting, and had big patches of fur hanging off its skin. Moulting bears often scratch themselves with their claws, or rub their bodies against trees or rocks. "The barnacles," Deecke says, "may have given that exfoliating feeling."
Brown bears may not be the only bears to use tools, says Euclid Smith of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. A 1972 report suggested that a polar bear might have clubbed a seal over the head with a chunk of ice (Yearbook of the Norwegian Polar Institute, p 177). But the researchers did not see the event, and the behaviour has never been seen since.
Deecke points out that bears have large brains for their body size, suggesting they are clever, though too few tests of bear cognition have so far been carried out to say for sure.
Come on, if Moneymaker can use crying baby dolls and fake deer for tools, then a bear can easily use tools. I can't verify that absolutely, but I am running on the assumption of IQ levels which is a good indicator of not only tool use, but proper tools for the proper jobs. Hence, mannequins and fireworks - improper tools.
ReplyDeleteAutumn, you're the main reason I keep coming back here!
DeleteThank you, sweetie.
DeleteI live in Indiana, bears not native here so don't matter if they confirmed it wasn't a man or bear last night, we have no bears here so mute point
ReplyDeleteMoot
DeleteI saw a bear using a lawnmower once. i think he stole it from a Walmart.
ReplyDeleteNow if they can get a pic of a bear hammering a mussel with a rock..
ReplyDelete1%
Its all a trick! Bigfoot just wants us to think that bears use rocks to scratch. It's all part of a overall Bigfoot plot for world domination.
ReplyDeleteMoneymaker isn't the stupid buffoon that he plays on TV. He's in it with the Bigfoots in an effort to spread misinformation. Think about it! Nobody can be that stupid!
Yes, Barry, that qualifies. Nobody can be that stupid. Hee hee
Delete"he saw a "Bigfoot" using rocks to crack mussel shells in a creek." ... and so do otters, except they use their belly for a tabletop.
ReplyDeleteChimpanzees in the Wild make pointy stick spears to skewer reptiles hiding in the knotholes of trees.
Lammergeier Vulture/Eagles drop aerial stones on partially eaten prey to crack the bones for the marrow.
Apes poop in their hand to manufacture a biological missile weapon to hurl at enemy human beings.
Monkey see, monkey do.
Didn't Cheeta in the Weismuller Tarzan movies once knock some guy out with a club or vase, pick up a microphone & call Berlin Nazi headquarters, and call some janitor on the tele?
This is old news. I borrowed a set of wrenches from the bears next door just last week.
ReplyDeleteMystery solved Scoob. It was that rascally bear all along. So like let's hop on the mystery machine and get outta here
ReplyDeleteAll this does is confirm that the random stone throwing is done by bears.
ReplyDeleteHi, nice post. I have been wondering about this topic,so thanks for sharing. I will certainly be subscribing to your blog.
ReplyDeleteBigfoots have been observed many times in reported encounters using sticks to dig and holding large branches like a club and we all ready know they tree knock, so not much of an issue about breaking muscles on rocks.
ReplyDeleteAs for Bears every year we go to my parents in law cabin on Manistique Lake in the Upper Peninsula. Close by is the town of Newberry Michigan and outside of town is Oswalds Black Bear Ranch, where a population of usually 25 bears make a home, and can be viewed up close. Every year we visit this and I will ask Dean Oswald about his observations of Bears using tools just for my own curiosity.
Chuck