A bear in the Pioneer Valley had a close encounter of the selfie kind.
A field camera from The Trustees of Reservations, a land preservation nonprofit, captured an extreme close-up of an inquisitive bear that was posted this week on Instagram.
A spokeswoman for The Trustees said the nonprofit is confident the bear is a female black bear that had been spotted previously with her cubs.
Sally Naser, who manages The Trustees’s Conservation Restrictions program, said bears are often attracted to the cameras because of the scent of humans.
“It’s pretty common with bears due to their excellent sense of smell which is why we use heavy duty steel bear boxes on all of our remote trail cameras. When I go out to check the cameras in the field and find the box side ways on the trees and with muddy paw prints, I know I’m going to have bear footage.”
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The bear’s close-up was originally taken in May.
According to the state Department of Fish & Game, the American black bear is the only bear species found in Massachusetts.
Field footage of the “selfie” bear from The Trustees
Nicole Hernandez can be reached at nicole.hernandez@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @NRHSJax.