Bear climbs power transmission tower to raid ravens' nest
'None of us had ever seen anything like that'
A group of bison hunters visiting Wood Buffalo National Park watched a bear climb a power transmission tower and raid a ravens' nest earlier this month.
Linda Powell of Greensboro, N.C., shot the photos and video on May 10.
"We were in a clearcut, where there were actually power lines and towers and I had noticed earlier there were nests at the top of them.
"I was sitting there and glanced over and happened to see a black bear on its hind legs at the base of the tower and my first thought that went through my mind was: that bear's gonna climb the tower but I didn't really think that it would."
She says everyone in her party was so shocked at first, they didn't grab their cameras until the bear was near the top of the tower.
"Over the next few minutes we watched him very skillfully climb the tower while the ravens were diving at him pecking at him, squawking, trying to do everything they could to discourage him, and he just climbed right to the top."
Powell is the director of media relations for O.F. Mossburg and Sons, a U.S. company that makes firearms. She had brought two hunters with decades of experience to the area to field test some of the company's hunting guns.
"None of us had ever seen anything like that in all of our years or our time out in the field hunting," she says.
After raiding the nest for eggs, the bear struggled a little on the descent but made it down safely, she says. Later, the ravens just sat by the nest "almost like they were in mourning."
Other than the great bear story, she says the group didn't have much luck hunting.