Not Your Average Teddy Bear

Driving toward an outdoor excursion the other evening with a destination and plan in mind, I came upon a second place that was rather appealing.  There I sat at the crossroads having to decide which road to take: my original plan to visit a place I've been to many times--comfortable, familiar - or - this new place which was literally a path through the woods, covered with an orange blanket of leaves that shone in the glow of the nearly-setting sun.  I pondered these two paths, thinking of good reasons in both directions but knowing my time was limited with sunlight before dusk began to fall.  Although I desire exploring new places, something drew me toward the familiar.  I spun my car around and headed that way.  A few miles up the road something off the side of the road caught my eye.  It was a tall, dark figure standing at the edge of the woods.  I stopped the car to further investigate and grabbed my camera for a closer look.

                                                                            A bear!


          The bear sat down like a giant teddy bear, now noticing me for the first time as I crept closer. 



Up and down he went, undeterred by my presence.

I zoomed in to see exactly what he was feasting on.  Blueberries!  He was in a giant blueberry bramble!

Besides getting a close-up of his long, sharp claws, zooming in also allowed me to observe his behavior.

Using his powerful arms, he'd yank the branches, pulling more blueberries into his reach.

Knowing I was still there and hearing the clicks of my camera, every once in a while he's stop to look at me.

There's something to be said for eye contact.  Folks say you shouldn't  engage in eye contact because it could be taken as threatening or a challenge to the animal, but I think, and in my experience particularly with bears, eye contact also can and does have the opposite reaction.  I think it has more to do with comfort levels and respect and what you 'give off' (fear or admiration.)

He did not seem to feel threatened; he felt comfortable enough to continue doing what he was doing.

             After a while his atttention became diverted by the cars driving by either slowing down
                    or stopping to see what I was photographing, so he began to walk away.



I walked along side him, my heart beginning to pound with the thought of becoming even closer to him when he left the woods and came out on the neighboring homeowner's property.  Here, we'd be on level, common ground.  Here is where the respect of boundary and space comes in, as well as the awe.   And here is where I began speaking to him and was able to take several more pictures.

I noticed this bear had no tags in his ears or a radio collar around his neck.

And then he was on the move.

Just as he was walking across the road, a car zoomed past, startling him and the only thing he could do was to run up a steep hillside.  It wasn't an easy task!  In fact I snapped a picture of him slipping downward! 

After he was out of sight, I realized had I chosen the other path,

I would have never had seen and observed this!

Glaura B!