![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WBP-6-Large-800x533.jpeg\")
They may look small, but the seeds hidden in these pine cones are an excellent food source for bears. ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bear-Large-800x450.jpeg\")
Jake Davis caught this bear entering the squirrels\u2019 midden. <\/p>\nA Nat Geo and BBC cinematographer has put together a beautiful wildlife documentary that tells the story of grizzly bears interacting with red squirrels in Yellowstone. <\/p>\n
While it may seem like an unusual meal for a grizzly bear, whitebark pine trees produce cones that are packed full of nutritious seeds and are actually one of the most calorific foods for the apex predators. <\/p>\n
They may look small, but the seeds hidden in these pine cones are an excellent food source for bears. Jake Davis caught this bear entering the squirrels\u2019 midden. <\/p>\n
Jake Davis, who previously captured rare footage of a wolf kill<\/a> also in Yellowstone, set up 10 Sony a7S IIIs<\/a> around a red squirrel\u2019s midden, the area where they stash their food. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a marvelously shot, edited, and crafted documentary that is propelled by Davis\u2019 expert knowledge of the Yellowstone ecosystem. <\/p>\n \u201cThe bears use their nose to sniff out the hidden cones, and you can actually hear them doing it,\u201d explains Davis.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea of a grizzly bear, this big apex predator, working so hard for a pine cone seemed crazy to me at first. <\/p>\n \u201cBut when you look at how nutritious the seeds are, it does start to make sense. They\u2019re a near-perfect food: more than 50% fat, 20% protein; they\u2019re one of the most calorie-dense foods in a grizzly\u2019s diet.\u201d <\/p>\n Davis, who has been working on this project for 10 years, found that it wasn\u2019t just grizzly bears attracted to the area \u2014 martens and long-tailed weasels are also interested in the squirrel\u2019s cache of cones. <\/p>\n The plucky critters also have to fend off owls that will occasionally swoop at them. In fact, the middens attract all manner of animals, and the squirrels\u2019 cone-stashing activity is an essential part of the forest\u2019s ecosystem. <\/p>\n But even after all those unwanted visitors, the squirrels stash so many cone seeds that they still have plenty to get through the harsh winter. <\/p>\n \u201cThis project is really where my career began,\u201d says Davis. \u201cI first set out just wanting to film grizzly bears, but it quickly grew into a much larger story about the forest and the relationships that shape it. I\u2019ve been working on it for more than a decade now, and in many ways it\u2019s how I developed my craft. The forest hooked me early on. I keep coming back to see what\u2019s changed, what\u2019s happening each year. It helped me fall in love with telling stories about the natural world.\u201d <\/p>\n Image credits: Photographs by Jake Davis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Nat Geo and BBC cinematographer has put together a beautiful wildlife documentary that tells the story of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[120589,120590,120591,65824,61,60,120592,120593,120594,82,62584,263,19479,120595],"class_list":{"0":"post-237560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-cinematic","9":"tag-cinematicvideo","10":"tag-cinematographer","11":"tag-grizzlybear","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-jakedavis","15":"tag-naturedocumentary","16":"tag-pinecone","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-squirrel","19":"tag-wildlife","20":"tag-yellowstone","21":"tag-yellowstonenationalpark"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WBP_1.1.8-Large-800x450.jpeg\")
The trigger for all of his cameras is actually a heat-based sensor; as soon as an animal is in the area it will trigger all 10 cameras to start recording. ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WBP_1.1.9-Large-800x450.jpeg\")
This camera went up a tree to get a \u201csquirrel\u2019s view.\u201d ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WBP_1.1.4-Large-800x450.jpeg\")
\u201cThe squirrels work tirelessly during this season,\u201d says Davis. \u201cUp to 80% of their daily activity is spent on harvesting and caching cones. And these giant cones are not easy to handle.\u201d <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WBP_1.1.12-Large-800x450.jpeg\")
Martens also pose a threat to squirrels. <\/p>\n