One of New York's oldest bruins

My internship at the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation central office is going well. Most of my time has been spent at a desk doing all sorts of things, but a few times I’ve been allowed outside!

About a month ago, I got to head to an old sub-office of the central office, found in Delmar. NOW this facility is just home to the state’s pathology unit, as well as a lot of stored items. In years past though, this is where the Bureau of Wildlife was housed. The reason I went, was to get some educational supplies together for a festival I went to and worked a DEC educational table. We were digging around in the storage unit, finding all sorts of interesting pieces of equipment, signage, traps, and anything else you could possibly imagine field biologists needing when working with wildlife.

We then headed into the basement of the main building. Stephen King should come down to Delmar for a visit and check out this building. It’s a bit creepy down there, and very clinical feeling. A lot of stainless steel, and large, suspended overhead lighting. If only the walls could talk…

We were in search of a well-preserved bear skull in good condition to bring with us, so visitors to the festival could check it out. In a different storage area, which is a large walk-in cooler/freezer no longer climate-controlled, we found what we were looking for. There is a large collection of bear skulls that were part of a long-ago study. We had so many to choose from, we just had to open shoe box-sized boxes and check out the quality of the skull within. Almost immediately, my eye was drawn to one box in particular. I’m not sure why, it was in the same box color and size as all the others, but I just chose one randomly from the middle of a stack. When I read the writing, I realized what a prize I had picked.

It said: Aged 41 3/4 +/- 1 years old – Oldest N.Y. age to date. Shot 30 November 1974.

THAT is an old bear! Especially because it was living in the wild! I wonder how much longer this bruin would have lived, had it not been shot?

What I’m particularly interested in sharing with you, is the quality of this bear’s teeth, and sneak in a little bit of education too, if I may!

First I’ll begin with the taxonomy of the American black bear, which is how the animal is classified. All KNOWN living organisms are classified by first Kingdom, then: Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. There are other sub-levels in between all of those major levels, but to keep this simple (and to be honest I don’t understand anything more complex), I’m keeping to the KPCOFGS.

Basic American black bear taxonomy. 

Table created by Alyssa Johnson 

for the purposes of this blog.

You’ll notice that the Order that the black bear belongs to, is Carnivora. We think of bears (we have three species in North America: black bears, grizzly/brown bears (Ursus arctos), and polar bears (Ursus maritimus)) as ferocious meat-eaters. For our black bears, this simply is not true. This is not to say that black bears won’t exhibit “ferocious” behavior, and won’t eat meat- they will do both if necessary. But according to countless books and peer-reviewed articles I’ve pored over this summer, 90% of the black bear’s diet typically is vegetative matter, at least for bears in our neck o’ the woods. They eat berries, leaves, tender stems, mast (acorns, nuts, etc), roots, and cambium (inner layer of bark sometimes called sapwood). They really are opportunistic scavengers, who eat anything edible. While it is in their nature, to be predatory, yet they often don’t actively seek out or hunt live prey. Where as grizzly and polar bears seek out meat actively (polars even more so) by hunting, black bears rarely do so. A common “live meat” I’ve come across the black bears feasting on, is often newborn deer, moose, and elk calves while they are nestled down shortly after birth.

I feel, and many bear biologists likely agree, that perhaps black bears should not be considered in the Order Carnivora. But, many animals are categorized by their dentition, or teeth. And black bears CERTAINLY have the long canines that other carnivores have. But what they also have, are really well developed molars in the back of their mouths. These wide teeth are adapted for grinding plant matter, not slicing meat.
I realize all of this talk of bear classification may seem to be straying from the topic about this really old bear skull I found in DEC storage, but trust me, I’m coming back to it.

Below are pictures of a much younger black bear, than the old bear first mentioned. I don’t know the exact age, but I do know that it is an adult. I am including a few pictures of it for comparison.

An adult black bear skull

And below is the old bear’s skull!

An adult black bear skull

Now it’s very apparent that the quality of these skulls is different. Perhaps it’s the way that the older one was cleaned, maybe something caustic was used. Maybe it’s just time that’s aged the bone. But what I want you to look at are the teeth.

Check out those canines! The poor old bear was somehow managing to forage and feed with ground down nubs. And it appears the root of that canine was exposed! I can only imagine how uncomfortable that must have been. The younger adult bear on the right has beautiful, intact teeth still. These canines though, typically used by carnivores to get a hold of their prey and hang on so it can’t escape. But, like I said above, black bears are primarily plant-eaters. Plants don’t move too fast. What I have read though, is that they use these powerful, sharp teeth in conjunction with their claws to get into logs for bees, ants, grubs, etc. I’ve witnessed, with my very own eyes, a bear tear into a log, and it was like it was made out of tissue!
Below are pictures of the molars, with striking contrasts between the ages.

Texture is difficult to portray in a 2 dimensional image, but I think you can see the smoothness of the old bear’s molars, and the points in the younger bear’s. The dark coloration is dentine poking through the enamel. Animals that eat vegetation often exhibit this. White-tailed deer, in fact, can be aged by the quality and quantity of dentine showing on the teeth. After 40 + years of eating all sorts of things, this bear’s teeth are showing it.

I wonder, had that old bear not been taken by a hunter, how much longer he or she could have lived with teeth in that condition. In Minnesota, a biologist by the name of Karen Noyce has been monitoring a bear – a really old bear – since the early 1980s. She claims this bear is the oldest living wild bear ever. Well, of course whoever aged “my” old bear could be wrong, but perhaps she’ll see this article and be interested in one of NY’s oldest bruins. For a recent article, check out: World’s oldest wild bear.

Some of that bear’s teeth are missing as well. I don’t remember seeing them in the box, like they had fallen out after the skull was cleaned. You can see the crater where that upper canine should be, it’s almost like the bone dissolved. There might have been some trauma to the bear’s face, and it lost the tooth. That’s just my speculation though of course.

41 + year old bear skull showing missing teeth

   

 It’s really interesting to have such a stark contrast in ages to look at. Skulls fascinate me, and are a great ‘hands-on’ piece that have made their way into many of my classes. The bone structure and dentition can tell us so much about how the animal lives. I was glad to come across this record bruin and to be able to share the pictures!

I’ve been collecting skulls over the past year or so. I have this collection, and it is kind of morbid, but I promise they are not displayed in my living room. I’m slowly building a collection of native critters, so that when I do educational presentations, I can share the animal skulls. I don’t have a black bear skull yet for my collection, and I certainly won’t be hunting bear anytime soon. Perhaps one will come to me somehow, until then I just have these cool pictures.

Thanks for sticking through a long entry, it was worth it though, right?!

Cleaning Skulls and Setting Cameras

This past weekend I went back to my hometown because we had a 4 day weekend for "fall break". As a disgruntled professor of mine said last week, "Isn't Columbus Day a made up holiday? Wasn't he like the 8th guy to "discover" America?"...well, whatever. I'll take 2 days off from class!

So while I was back, I picked up a few things from my alma mater, FLCC. Among the things, was a container with skulls in it. Animal skulls. Like, meaty, gory, brainy, yucky skulls. I know, I know...but let me explain.

Mady (my roommate) and I collect skulls. We like them because we can learn from the skulls. It's a sign that's left behind, after the animal has died. I know it may seem morbid to collect, but they're already dead. We don't kill animals for their skulls. We started last year tramping through the woods after the snow melted looking for antler sheds and skulls....we've morphed a bit, and now we do collect roadkill with the intention of keeping the skull.

See: Porcupine Paws for more information about collected roadkill :)

We've had a long-tailed weasel skull and porcupine skull sitting out in the woods, underneath rocks, rotting. Carrion beetles come and naturally clean the bones, making it very easy for us to clean up and make sanitary.

The container I had of skulls, was given to me by a taxidermist. I had expressed a want of skulls, and he hooked me up with a flying squirrel skull, coyote skull, and red fox skull.

Today Mady decided to clean skulls, which is awesome because I'm too squeamish to do it myself. I like them, and I'll collect them, but I don't like the cleaning part, unless it's passive like setting them out in the woods for 3 months.


These pictures are gross, just a warning (Well, not of Mady...the pics after that!).

Mady cleaning skulls.

After they've been outside for a long time, and most of the "meat" is rotted off, Mady boils the skull in water and hydrogen peroxide.

 

Suggestions: Do this OUTSIDE in a pot that you will never use for the preparation of food items ever again. This is our "skull pot". I got it at Wal-Mart for a few dollars, and serves it's purpose well.

A "pre-rotted" red fox skull.

Mady boiled this for a few minutes to loosen stuff up, then we put it out in the woods, where it will sit for a month or two.

This is a completely cleaned weasel skull.

 It came out really nice! I love that elongated brain case. They have a large brain in relation to their body size. They are cunning little creatures.

Porcupine skull and incisors.

Those gray blocks are just packaging material stuck to the cardboard. My computer was broken, got fixed, and was sent back with this cardboard and Mady just used this piece as a surface to work on.

 

Upper jaw of the porcupine.

Upper jaw again: Mady and I thought these teeth looked old.

The teeth are very worn, flat looking- and the dentine is evident (dark brown). Porcupines average between 5-7 years of life in the wild (according to Nat Geo). 5 years is a long time to be chewing on wood, bark, and other woody plant material, so no wonder these teeth look the way they do.

Porcupine incisors.

The darker end was the end implanted in the jaw of the animal, and the orange is the extra hardened enamel which aids in protection of the tooth. These incisors are the same teeth that beavers have, mice, tree squirrels, muskrats and woodchucks (although woodcucks don't have orange enamel for some reason). But they all share the characteristic of constantly-growing, self-sharpening, large front teeth. This makes them rodents in the Rodentia family!

Weasel skull in hand, for some scale.

Flying squirrel skull, pre-cleaning, in hand.

Gross, I know. Flying squirrels are adorable, ADORABLE, and this is not. But, look at the eye socket of this thing. HUGE eyes!!! Compared to the weasel above! Why is that? Because they're nocturnal! Weasels I suppose do move around at night as well, but not as exclusively as the flyers. Which, right now I have 3 on the bird feeder in the backyard. It's cool to peep out there at night with a flashlight and see them munching on bird seed.

 

Flying squirrels are, by the way, the most common squirrels in NY. They're nocturnal, that's why we hardly ever see them. If you have a bird feeder, I urge to check it out at night! Eventually I'm going to rig up a camera trap on the feeder to get pics of them!

 

Then our friend and FLCC/Cobleskill classmate Adam came over to store his scent lures at my house. He lives on campus, and didn't want to leave them in his room or in his car because they're so noxious. He hung his Bushnell Trophy Cam on the tree my Cuddeback used to hang on, when I got the bobcat picture. And then he went to work setting stinky scent lures out for predators.

 

 

And on our way back down the hill, Mady set out the coyote skull and red fox skull to be cleaned up a bit by Mother Nature.

And the last pic of the day, the coyote and red fox skull side by side for some size comparison, along with the toe of my boot.

 

 

I have nothing exciting to show from my weekend away, when I checked my cameras upon my return. Crows and a raccoon. Boring! But hopefully I can do a follow up entry soon with some pictures that either Adam or I have gotten!