Elk Moves Trail Camera Only For Polite Bear To Walk By & Put It Back

Talk about a polite bear.

Bruins might just be misunderstood. A lot of times, the big stories surrounding the large animals revolve around them being violent, or at the very least getting into something they aren’t supposed to. But on occasion, these apex predators ditch their hunting tendencies and instead showcase their caring nature.

One of the videos that I’m still baffled by to this day is the clip where a bear walks by a fallen traffic cone and flips it back to the upright position. Why would a wild animal have any worry about a fallen cone, and how would it know that it needed to be returned to the correct posture? It might be a fluke, but this footage below supports the idea that bears pay attention to the little details.

The YouTube channel this video is posted on is called “Ruby’s Creek,” which is named after the cinnamon bear that stars in the most of the clips. If you want to follow along with Ruby’s continuing story, it’s a great channel (covering mostly trail camera footage) to follow. And in this clip that’s featured on there, an elk that the Tom-Brokaw-esque narrator described as a “huge creature” bumps into the trail camera and messes up its alignment:

“I had the camera positioned just where I wanted it. Then a huge creature came along and realigned the camera. It was an elk.”

Just a warning for when you watch the video – the calming voice of the narrator describing things as they play out really steals the show. It’s simple commentary, but it’s delivered in such a wonderful way. Almost like it’s supposed to be on one of those apps that helps you fall asleep.

Later on, the trail camera triggers and shows a bruin butting up against the tree-mounted recording device. Call it a mistake or a coincidence if you want, but the bear moves the camera angle back to almost exactly where it was before the elk messed with it. As the narrator explained:

“Later, this bear noticed the misaligned camera and carefully set it back. The next day, he returned for this great selfie.”

Check it out: