Our new article explores using video cameras in bear collars to understand nuances of their diet: https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article/104/1/184/6847075
We used video cameras mounted on collars we placed on Asian black bears to compare video footage of their foraging with traditional fecal analysis. We found that video provided unique insights—such as detecting leaves or mammal prey that are hard to identify in feces—while fecal analysis still captured items that were quickly or rarely eaten. Together, these methods give a more complete picture of bear diets, showing that video collars are a valuable new tool for studying individual differences in feeding behavior.