I’ve always been fascinated by bears, and this has led me to some of the best bear habitat in the country. This image was taken a couple weeks ago in Glacier National Park, Montana. It’s a healthy male black bear returning from a drink at the lake. This shot took me about six hours to get after first spotting the bear on the slopes at sunrise. I waited him out and sure enough he came down to the lake for a drink at noon. I used a long lens (420mm on a 1.6x crop sensor).
Glacier National Park is stacked with healthy berry patches which these bears love. Sometimes you can see up to a dozen bears on the high slopes making their way slowly through the berries. After this guy got his drink, he went right back to the huckleberries.

Upon seeing this photo, a friend of mine asked me if I feared bears, and why I don’t carry a firearm. There are a couple reasons. First, I carry bear spray, which has been proven more effective than guns as a bear deterrent. Secondly, while bears are indeed wild animals, I find that a little common sense pays off. These are not blood thirsty maniacs thundering through the forests. They are intelligent and well-behaved for the most part. I do not approach them or act in any way which alters their behavior. It’s also important to follow food storage precautions in places like Glacier. A bear’s sense of smell is unmatched by any land animal, and seven times stronger than a bloodhound. The part of a bear’s brain devoted to smell is five times the size the human portion devoted to smell.

For a little reality, see this fascinating “odds of dying” chart:

Odds of Biting It

A few more odds:

Odds of dying by a grizzly in Yellowstone: 1 in 3 million
Odds of dying by a cougar attack in California: 1 in 32 million
Odds of dying via attack by any animal not a dog or pet: 1 in 4,200,000
Odds of dying by accidental firearm discharge: 1 in 5134
Odds of dying by firearm assault: 1 in 324
Odds of dying from heart disease: 1 in 5

As you can see, there are many worse things to worry about. As for our bear friend, eventually he sauntered off into the woods, no doubt stuffed with berries. My fascination with bears (and the wild in general) has led to these topics frequenting my fiction. My short story “Revenge on Apex Mountain” features a grizzly (due for release any day now in Fearology 2). My novel INVASIVE also has bears, as does the novel that takes place in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which has no grizzly bears, but is thick with black bears.

Sometimes I see the bears I’ve photographed as I drift off to sleep. But it’s not the perfect shot, or the best image of the day, only the last glimpse before they disappear into the shadows at tree line. Strange, but I think that’s how they want to be seen, and in the end, no matter the photo, that’s how I remember them.