Bear or Bobcat Problem at Betasso

We first discovered that box 8 was damaged on June 12. The damage certainly suggested that a bear or bobcat were possible culprits, but bears often destroy a box completely. The chicks were still alive, so we optimistically replaced the damaged hole guard the next day and hoped for the best. A week later, parents were still feeding chicks and nothing else had changed.

On June 26, we found that the box had been destroyed, with most of it on the ground. Given the two-week interval, it's uncertain whether the destruction was due to the same animal, or even the same species. The nest was pretty much undamaged, probably because the chicks fell out when the box landed on the ground. They were close to fledging at the time. One wonders if one or more might have escaped, however, for recording purposes, we assume that none fledged.

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