A bear gets nasty in the newest promotional clip for Planet Earth II. With grinding hips and a head swaying in exaltation, this bear gets down to some choice music provided by the BBC — The Pussycat Dolls’s “Don’t Cha.” If this bear had a voice, it would no doubt be saying something like, “Look how I’m shaking my butt, Tiffany!”
In reality, Tiffany’s tree-grinding friend is probably, like many club goers, just trying to get laid. Adult male bears rub their scent on trees as a way to communicate to breeding females that they’re around and they’re ready. It’s like what Busta Rhymes communicates on “Don’t Cha”: “Prowl for the best chick/Yes I’m on the lookout.” These bears are on the sexual prowl, and they know rubbing their scent on trees will help make the magic happen.
For decades, understanding why bears rub on trees remained a mystery built on conflicting theories. Some scientists thought that female bears rubbed up on trunks when they came into their reproductive cycles; others thought bears backed their thangs up treewise to get rid of an itch and pick up sap as an insect repellent. And while bears of all ages and sexes have been seen smearing their scent on trees, scientists determined in 2007 that the main point of rubbing was so that male bears could spread their scent to attract females and let other male bears know they are in the neighborhood.
In a study led by Owen Nevin, Ph.D. of the University of Cumbria, a team of researchers set up infrared digital cameras opposite trees known to be rubbed by bears, along with satellite telemetry equipment to track the bear’s movements. They found that it’s adult male bears that most often rub trees to leave their mark, moving around their territory in large loops. All the while, they would look for breeding females.
Marking trees, believes Nevin, allows breeding females to know a male is in the area and help adult males get to know each other better — which could possibly be a way of reducing fighting.
“Big male bears can seriously injure and even kill each other when they get into a fight,” Nevin said in a statement. “If one recognizes the other from the scent marks on the rub trees in the area he knows he’s in for a tough fight — he’s on the other guy’s patch so to speak — so it might be better to back away than to make a serious challenge.”
It’s not unlike the head nod across the club when two human males decide they won’t grind up on the same girl.
Planet Earth II airs on Sunday night on the BBC. If you’re an American and you want to see more of this bear, you’ll have to wait until its United States premiere date, January 28, 2017.
