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A Four-legged Vacuum (July 2008) If one spends enough time in the field, every once in a while you can get lucky and stumble upon a unique discovery. Such was the case on the 14th of July 2008. I was exploring the area of Yellowstone known as the Northern Range, when I came across a strange noise or commotion. Naturally I decided to investigate to see what was transpiring. The habitat was composed primarily of large Douglas-fir surrounding a small remnant stand of aspen. So I worked my way towards these strange noises. The sounds were hard to describe. First there were obvious call notes of hungry, begging Williamson's Sapsucker nestlings coming from a hole, but then there were also distress calls being emitted by the brace or pair of adults. Other species of birds such as American Robin, Warbling Vireo, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee, Western Tanager, and Ruby-crowned Kinglet soon joined the ruckus, contributing to the confusing cacophony. But what was even stranger yet, was the background noise. And every so often one could hear a loud sucking sound or a sound similar to that resembling a snoring human. I was perplexed as to what was going on, so I moved closer to get a clearer view. There were a lot of conifers in the way, but I was bound and determined to figure out what was going on. Then I came to an opening in the trees and had a good view of the aspen stand some 300 feet away. And there in front of me, was the answer to my inquisitiveness. Thirty feet up in a dying aspen, was a 200 lb. black bear grabbing on to the tree with its claws. I didn't want to disturb what was happening or change its behavior, so I watched from a distance hidden in the shadows of the conifers. The adult Williamson's Sapsuckers were very upset with the intruder, with the female coming in close contact with the bear. The male sapsucker was upset but kept his distance from the black bear. Higher up and in the nearest conifer were the scolding robins, vireos, nuthatches, chickadees, tanagers, and kinglets. But I needed to concentrate through my binoculars to figure out what was going on. The bear was 30 feet up the aspen with its front claws open and digging into the smooth but soft aspen bark. The bear had its mouth touching the bark to what appeared to be a small woodpecker hole, three feet down from the broken off top of the tree. And then you could hear what once was the background noise, but now a much louder sucking sound or a sound similar to that resembling snoring human. Over the staccato sounds of the defending adult sapsuckers, you could hear pulses of screaming young sapsuckers, as soon as the bear moved its head away from the worn hole. It was a sight that was hard to believe, the bear would periodically put its mouth to the bark, and extend its long tongue into the one inch and a half hole and try to extract one of the young sapsuckers. When the bear took a break, the helpless young would continue to cry for help but to no avail. Surprisingly, only this time the bear put its entire mouth to the nest hole and started sucking making the much louder mystery sucking sound or a sound similar to that resembling a snoring human. And then it happened, you could see the bear chewing on what was extracted from the hole. It was one of the sapsucker young, and to my surprise it was sucked out of the hole like a siphon into the bears mouth. The bear was going for more young sapsuckers, when it put its nose in the air and stopped immediately, as if it smelled something. Unfortunately, the black bear picked up my scent and looked over my way and noticed me. Immediately, it scurried down the flaking aspen bark rear end first, and descended to the ground, and ran away from me at a very fast speed. I have seen black bear perform some amazing feats in Yellowstone, but never did I ever envision the opportunity to witness a young Williamson's Sapsucker being extracted or sucked from a hole by way of a black four-legged vacuum.
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