The bear turns, looking toward another trail that leads past my compost area to the seasonal road that cuts through the hundred acres of Petra, Maine. Bears don't have very good vision but they make up for it with wariness and excellent senses of smell and hearing.
The size of a black bear's territory is thought to be less in Maine than in other parts of the United States and Canada, possibly only a five mile radius, or less than eighty square miles. This may be because Maine has an abundance of natural resources that could meet the animal's needs within a smaller area. If this is the same bear as we saw in photographs taken ten minutes ago, this particular bear shows up on camera sometimes every day, and seldom less often than every few days, so I don't think he strays too far from Petra.