A hungry bear pilfers a woodpecker’s acorn stash

Being very high up in a rotten tree doesn’t seem to matter. Having to bite away layers of splintery wood doesn’t seem to matter. This clever and very hungry bear has found a woodpecker’s acorn stash and is happily digging them out.

Who isn’t happy? The acorn woodpecker who stashed the acorns in the tree. From Nature‘s Big Bend: The Wild Frontier of Texas on PBS, narrated by Thomas Haden Church:

Many months have passed and fall is a distant memory, but there are still acorns to be found–and bears love acorns.

This bear is skin and bone. He’s had a tough winter… Acorns are full of protein and fat, lifesavers for a desperate Big Bend bear.

Acorn woodpeckers create ‘granaries’ in trees by drilling holes and stuffing them each with an acorn. Via bioGraphic, it takes around 20 minutes to make each hole, so no doubt it’s hard for the bird to watch another animal benefit.

Plus, more about the Peabody Award-winning show’s Texas-based episode via The Big Bend Sentinel:

Showcasing the natural magic of Big Bend over the course of a year, the film searches out its secret places and wild creatures, including many species of birds, butterflies, bats, reptiles, cacti and scorpions. Big Bend is home to a greater variety of these creatures than nearly any other US National Park.

The film features Big Bend’s remarkable Black Bears – pioneers who came across the Mexican desert and were the first to reclaim Texas after decades of hunting and persecution.

The Nature episode premieres on February 10 on PBS.

Watch these related bear and woodpecker videos next:
• You’d Never Guess What an Acorn Woodpecker Eats
• The Anomalies: The Acorn Woodpecker
• Black bear cubs learn to scamper up trees (sort of)
• Visiting a bear’s winter den with bear scientist Rae Wynn-Grant