A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Ursus americanus
Most common NA bear. This one was probably one or two years old and was causing a commotion with a family of Pileated Woodpeckers who drew our attention to the area with their alarm calls. There was lots of evidence in the area of the bear pulling away at the lower bark on trees and digging away at the roots of trees, probably to access grubs and ants, etc living there. Black Bears are omnivores.
Spotted on Jul 24, 2012
Submitted on Aug 4, 2012
20 Comments
We have lots of coyotes here on our property. They are only overwhelming if they are in a large pack and hunting food. There are cougars in this area too but not very many sightings have been documented. Tracks and scat are more common to see than the animal itself. When we are mushroom foraging, we always wear a bear bell on our stick or boots and then we don't see much wildlife!
It is overwhelming to be in front of wild life. Deer too can create an overwhelming feeling. What if ,a coyote or cougar?! leave alone a bear.
I was using my Canon 70 - 300 mm lens. And then I cropped it somewhat. So not near enough to be dangerous unless he/she decided to come our way. We were fairly near our campground and so had taken our bear bells off and were going along quietly to try to sneak up on the Pileated Woodpeckers to see why they were making such a fuss. Big mistake! never sneak around in the bush in bear country. I froze as soon as I saw the bear and took the photo. I had my camera ready cause I thought I was going to get a good Pileated photo! We always wear bear bells when we are hiking in Manning Park as we have seen quite a few bears there.
how far was this from you?
Thanks Mona. I am going to this place camping again July 21 - 24 so hope to see more wild things! It is at EC Manning Park in BC if you ever want to look it up. Beautiful wild place!
Awesome...
Awesome shot
Thanks Alina! It was a great moment. I was happy when it quietly turned around and faded into the underbrush without a trace.
this is a great photo!
Haha :)
Thanks, mcaul6515! It was a great wildlife encounter which I do not want to repeat quite as close next time! :)
wow! He's beautiful!
It's true birdlady, this is becoming an all to common occurrence. It's sad really. I think habitat loss and climate change is really effecting their food supply. Plus, with humans so close, our garbage, fruit trees and leftovers are easy meals.
The entire setting and the green color is so pleasant.I bet there are road kills too. We have deer and coyote,raccoons and skunks and opossums clashing with the traffic.
This spotting was taken in the Manning Park which is a great place for bears and people to coexist without rubbing shoulders too closely. It was a beautiful moment.
Unfortunately for the bears and the people, black bears are becoming very common in our semi-urban area here. We have problems with them coming in our gardens, orchards, blueberry patch and climbing the cherry trees and eating the cherries. They have broken the crown out of several cherry trees by sitting in the very top eating away on those sweet cherries. mixed feelings about these bears that are becoming urban-dwellers. I love to see them in the wild but not in my garden! We never saw any here in the first 20 years that we lived here, but the bear population is really swelling in our area. Somewhat of a concern.
Great photo :-)
Excellent spotting! I have yet to see one in the wild! Very Jealous! :)
Lovely,bird lady!!
After watching my sister and I for a while, she just faded into the bush behind her very silently. None of the crashing around that you sometimes hear when you have surprised a bear.