Today was another eventful day at our black gum plot as we began to look for physical evidence of the bear we caught on camera yesterday. Just slightly outside the southeastern entrance to our plot, we found the following three items in some shallow mud. We are working on identifying the butterflies or moth species that these wings belong to, and the fur is a bit of a mystery. After spending some time looking through the university's physical catalog of animal specimens, it would appear that the fur is the undercoat of a black bear. This fur clearly came from the bear that wandered through our plot on Sunday night. The last photo gives you a close up of the bear's rump as he was walking towards the black gum. The fur in the photo is course and thick, much like the clump we found. It was really wonderful to feel such a strong attachment to the site today and know that a bear has been through, keen only to pursue his own agenda.
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