Clever black bear makes cliff climbing look easy!
Ask anyone to name the animals that are the best climbers and you'd likely get a plethora of answers. Things like mountain goats and sheep would probably top the list. Followed by things like sloths and monkeys that live their whole lives in the treetops. Not many people would think of bears as great climbers.
Sure, we knew that these animals will sometimes climb trees, but you usually don't see a lazy bruin doing anything extreme. Usually because they don't often need to.
Well, it turns out that black bears are indeed excellent climbers, as this video shows as evidence. Watch this young cub perform some truly sick moves to catch back up to momma bear.
There you have it, black bears aren't afraid to play cliffhanger if given half the chance. From the way the mother bear tackled this wall, it's clear that she's done this before. And now that she's taught her cub, the cub will pass this skill down to the next generation of bears.
It looked like this young bruin was literally hanging on by the tips of his claws at one point in this video. He managed to change his approach quite well and make his way to an easier route and up the cliff face. Who knew rock climbing was something bears were talented in? Note to self, don't assume you can lose a charging bear up a large rock face.
The video's description says these are endangered Mexican black bears filmed in Santa Elena Canyon, which is a popular river rafting and kayaking spot on the river that cuts through the canyon. The area is part of the large and often-overlooked Big Bend National Park located right on the Mexican border in southwestern Texas. Some of the cliffs in Santa Elena tower as much as 1,500 feet.
Cool video and it goes to show that you can learn something new about animals every day!
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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