Most flying things are UFOs to bears.
this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2025
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I wonder how much animals understand something is another animal vs. something mechanical? Like do bears know those are human noise contraptions or are they like "Holy shit a flying turtle-wasp hybrid!"
Ask Jake. I think Finn understands. Probably due to the Princess's dope spin 'verse.
I'm sure they know a thing or two about bees.
The bears definitely took notice of the drone. The animals’ heart rate skyrocketed when the UAV flew overhead, and their stress response was stronger when the quadcopter flew in windy conditions that masked the sound of its approach — apparently bears do not like being surprised. One bear started moving faster after the quadcopter flew by. And the bear that had experienced the greatest increase in heart rate — from 41 beats per minute to 162 — moved nearly 7 kilometers in the next 28 hours, encroaching into a neighboring female’s territory.
All in all, though, the bears weren’t stressed all that much, the researchers concluded.
🤌
At least there is this:
Ditmer’s team says that their results reinforce the NPS ban on drones in parks.
Is this an issue for the average bear? Or is it more of an air traffic bear thing?
Bears are not great at identifying flying things. They know what a bee swarm is but can't tell a 737 and A320 apart, they might as well be UFOs.
They call everything a cessna
Yes, which is why air traffic bears (see top-level comment) struggle to find jobs at airports. They can't learn the phonetic alphabet either, and spell the conventional way (every letter is R, too).
A UFO would stress out a man, too.
I get aroused by the thought of telepathically asking them for the largest anal probe they have.
Why would a bear have an anal probe? I feel like there's easier ways to get one even if they did.
A lot of bears, twinks, twunks and otters enjoy them.
Username relevant?
I actually met them irl and their just a simple nun who wears the candles.
wears the candles
Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
They're quite prolific around here. It checks out.
What about a cars with 500k lumen headlights and the ability to go faster than anything you've ever seen without even having legs?
It's a real article.
Tldr: drones/uavs spook bears, probably not a good tool for bear based science, or indeed for anyone else to observe bears.
Not only that, but probably a lot more animals are stressed out by them. They just reported on the bears because they studied their response. But we should generally come up with guidelines or rules when or if people are allowed to fly drones in nature.
"You" would stress out a bear?
You'll have to ask the bear.
They just couldn't bear it