Total Pageviews

Saturday, March 02, 2013

McN Bear

Sometime in the 1960s it would appear that Mom got pretty close to a bear. I'm pretty sure she wasn't shooting with any telephoto lenses in those days.

I wasn't sure what to make of the shack in the background, so I added cartoon facial features to reflect my emotional state had I been there to see Mom shooting the photo.

1 comment:

"Identity Jeffsis" said...

That's a juvenile black bear that has become accustomed to humans. Your Mom was safe - mostly. Black bears are not normally aggressive to humans unless they feel threatened or if you get between a momma and her cubs. Even then, they prefer retreat over confrontation. Docile as the black bears tend to be, I wouldn't try to pet one, and feeding them is very bad. Any bear that gets the wrong idea about a human is a danger.

This bear was much more in danger than your Mom. The more they acclimatize themselves to humans, the more of a nuisance they become. If they are lucky, they get relocated. If not, they are killed.

Brown/Grizzly bears are much more violent and territorial. One of those guys will re-arrange you in a hurry just for being you.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but it's worth the effort of every Canadian citizen to check out Troy Hurtubise's NFB Canada documentary on the topic of bears (the one that reportedly was a massive influence on famous director Quentin Tarantino), not that it has much to do with your Mom - By God, I hope!

http://www.nfb.ca/film/project_grizzly/