From reader James, we have this
Adult male black bear (Ursus americanus) in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, on 23rd September, 2011.
Send in your animal or plant photos! I can’t use them all, but if you have some really good ones, email them to me.
Nice shot.
nice to see them in the wild.
How do i send them?
Search for Jerry’s email on the University of Chicago website or Google him…
Beautiful bear. There was a great BBC Natural World documentary about Grizzlies in Alaska last week – just wonderful -http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d8nbk
Hi
I’m the James who took this. We were driving through Grand Teton NP and saw a bunch of long lenses just off the road, so we pulled up and asked what was around.
Someone told us that a bear was at the bottom of the slope whose ridge we were on.
After about five minutes there was some rustling, and this fine specimen emerged from some bushes and ambled across the path a bare 25 yards from us. He paused, then swung his muzzle towards us: at that point there was much silent calculating among the 15 or so folks as to who was probably the slowest runner.
But brother bear here didn’t even admit of our presence! He stood up and scratched his back on a tree, then ambled over to the grove where there were lots of berries, and proceeded to spend the next 25 or 30 minutes nomming, stripping the bushes more or less bare of fruit.
He then ambled off across the road, up a hill (remarkably quickly) and disappeared.
For the whole of the time there were between 15 and 20 humans within about 25 yards, and not once did he show any alarm, wariness, or even awareness – though of course he couldn’t have missed us.
This photograph was taken with a Samsung NX10 mirrorless ILC, 1/320th sec, f/6.3 at ISO800, 35mm focal length equivalent 184mm. It’s not a bad camera, but not good for wildlife. As a result of the enjoyment I had photographing critters on this trip, I went and bought a Canon 7D for wildlife.
Hope you all like the photograph.
Well, I sure like it, James!
BTW, there are more of the bear, plus some other shots here: http://lusoman.smugmug.com/Other/2011-09-23-by-Eye-Fi/19263112_b5MK99#!i=1503636930&k=Rq9dnjD
Bear starts on page 2.
Thanks for sharing those, James. That would have been the highlight of my vacation. The only bears we saw when we were out that way were little black specks on the horizon.
Yes, it was the highlight of ours in Grand Teton. We headed up to Yellowstone after GT, and got to see a couple of bears from much further away, but the highlight of the Yellowstone trip was seeing a couple of wolf packs (Lamar pack, and Canyon pack). Those were WAY to far away to photographs with a 200mm lens – 800-1000mm would have been nice, but you need a University of Chicago professor’s salary to afford those 😉
Lovely pics, I am coming over to Nth American in a couple of months to see the Rockies and cruise up the Inside Passage, can’t wait. We don’t really do mountains in Australia, beaches yes, but not much in the way of mountains. And apparently the lakes will still be frozen too! Woohoo!
The way spring is going here, don’t count on frozen lakes!
My recommendations on the Rockies: Jasper NP, Banff NP, and Mt. Robson Provincial Park first. Then, if you are going to the US: Rocky Mtn. NP (Colorado), and non-Rockies: Zion NP (Utah), Arches NP (Utah), Great Basin NP (Nevada), Steen’s Mountain and the Alvord Desert/hot springs at its foot (Oregon), Mt. Rainier NP (Washington).
Like Oz, the US is BIG.
Do you board the inside passage boat (ferry or cruise ship?) at Vancouver BC?
I don’t want to seem blase but we get bears on our property and in our village all the time. All the dogs in the village bark when there are bears,(grizzly and black),around. We often go out in the morning to find fresh bear scat in our yard. How do you tell black bear scat from grizzly bear scat – grizzly scat has bear bells in it ! (That’s a local joke)
Where are you at, John?
Diane G: We are in Nakusp, British Columbia,Canada. The village is very isolated; 100 kilometres and a 30 minute ferry-ride south of Revelstoke. It lies on the shores of the Arrow Lakes, which is actually The Columbia River. If you care to send me your e-mail address – mine is perkyhue@telus.net – I will send you a couple of photos of our village. The population is about 1400.
Email sent! Oh, what a spectacular area that must be!
John,
What brings you to Nakusp, BC?
JBlilie: It’s quite a long story – if you care to send me your e-mail address, I’d be happy to send you a couple of pictures and tell you the short version of “what brought me to Nakusp”.
Nice shot, James!
I remember the bad old days when you could easily observe bears at the garbage cans in any national park within their range. Thankfully management practices have improved, restoring a bit of the bears’ “dignity.” Not to mention making it safer for tourists!