Seeing American Black Bears on our tours is always a treat, so it was quite exciting to see this one searching for ants, termites, and other small goodies with its nose in some rotting logs off the Glacier Point Road recently.

This is fairly common behavior especially in the early spring when the meadows and other typical plant foods have not yet been growing vigorously after the winter’s snow has melted. Now the meadows’ plants have begun to burst forth, so we may begin to see bears foraging in those areas.

With the nearby snow all melted now, we have been seeing many of the lovely red snow plants emerging from the soil along the Glacier Point Road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These plants have no chlorophyll and live on decomposing organic matter.Yet unlike mushrooms and other fungi that perform similar life processes and are in a completely different kingdom; these are angiosperms, flowering plants. They live in symbiosis with underground fungi and are found in humus-rich soils between 4,000’ and 9,000’ elevation.