Sunday, September 25, 2022

Rosy scat

The trail beside the Campbell River was mostly deserted today. But a bear had been there not too long before. He left a pile of undigested rose hips on the path.

Black bear scat, with tiny rose hips, mushy leaves.

Until I downloaded the photos, I hadn't seen the fly that was waiting for us to leave.

Zooming out to include the fly.

And zooming in to look at that fly.

A rather unusual fly, with orange detailing at the top of the wings.

These rose hips are tiny, no bigger than huckleberries. There were few left on the bushes beside this trail, but I had seen them at Roberts Lake, earlier.

Baldhip roses, Rosa gymnocarpa.

"In baldhip roses, the crown of sepals falls away from the fruit early, leaving the end of the hip 'bald' (making it unique among our roses in this respect)." (Plants of Coastal British Columbia)
I am left with a few questions:

The bears eat great quantities of berries and rose hips, yet I have often seen scat with these berries entire or barely squished. Do they get any nutrients at all from them? And if not, why do they eat so many?

Does this help the roses? Are the seeds viable after they've passed through the bears digestive systems?

Why do I never see the bears?

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Hoy no había mucha gente en el sendero al lado del rio Campbell. Pero sí, había pasado por allí no mucho antes, un oso negro. Nos dejó un montoncito de escaramujos sin digerir a medio camino.

Fotos:
  1. Heces de oso, con escaramujos de rosa calva, Rosa gymnocarpa.
  2. No había visto la mosca hasta que vi las fotos en casa. Ahí estaba en una hoja, esperando a que nos fuéramos.
  3. La mosca, vista de cerca. Tiene manchas de color anaranjado en la parte anterior de las alas.
  4. Hojas y escaramujos de rosa "calva".
"En las rosas "calvas", la corona de sépalos se separa de la fruta temprano, dejando el extremo del escaramujo "calvo" (lo que la hace única entre nuestras rosas en este respeto." (Plants of Coastal British Columbia)

Me quedo con unas preguntas:

Los osos comen gran cantidad de frutillas y escaramujos, pero muchas veces he visto sus heces que contienen estas frutas enteras o apenas machucadas. ¿Les sacarán algún beneficio en absoluto? Y si no, ¿porqué comen tantas?

¿Trae esto algún beneficio para las rosas? ¿Sus semillas, siguen vivas después de pasar por el sistema digestivo del oso?

¿Y porqué yo nunca logro ver los osos?

1 comment:

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