A Dangerous Bear

For over twenty years, I’ve been watching and photographing bears in the wild as a benign part of the landscape, largely ignored by these impressive animals going about their lives. The two following videos illustrate that. These two bears couldn’t be concerned less about the people in their environment. I did not approach these bears. I was sitting or standing in place when they came along. It is not safe for anyone to approach any bear this close.  This is only okay only because it was the bear’s choice.

Below: We yielded the creekside path to his bear when we saw her approaching.  She wanted to graze in the meadow where we stood. We slowly backed out of her way as she led her cubs to graze in front of us (anglers can be seen on the opposite side of the water).

This year, I saw the other side—the dangerous side—the bear of media, TV, and movies—the one that most people think is every bear.

Bears that haven’t been hunted or persecuted view people as just another part of the landscape unless they have something to defend—food, family, space. And they don’t like to be surprised in close spaces. Today, I safely watched a large boar aggressively defend a fresh carcass.

As the jet boat slowly moved up the river, I saw a bear along the far shoreline. We were heading back to camp at the end of the day. As the boat drew closer, the bear started jaw-popping – a classic sign of stress. I said to the guide, “He’s stressed about us. Let’s not go over there.” Just as the words left my mouth, a bright red object caught my eye. My first thought was trash. It’s such a pristine environment, though. I pulled my binoculars to my eyes to see an exposed, bloody ribcage next to the bear. The bear was now standing squared up, in a wide stance, facing directly toward us, head hung low, saliva covering his lips. He is staring intently. Intimidatingly. Daring us to come closer. This wasn’t a shy bear concerned about some people in a boat. He was assertively defending his food cache! 

The reality of the situation unfolded within a minute of the first sight of the bear. I exclaimed, ” This is how people die!” He would have charged if we were on foot at this distance or had surprised him hiking along a winding willowy trail. What might amount to a reprimand from an 800-pound bear with six-inch claws to another bear tends to be a fatal blow to our soft human bodies.The guide was now concerned about our location. We were in the middle of a wide river, but it was shallow —very shallow. The bear could quickly run out to us without being substantially slowed by the need to swim. Yet, we were 80 yards away with a gas-powered engine. This is the effect of the intimidation of a dangerous bear. The bear settled onto his cache, still on full alert. At this distance, we are not threatening enough to risk him leaving his carcass. I grabbed a few quick photos to analyze the scene once we were back at camp. Then, we left this bear with his much-needed calories. The whole encounter lasted 5 minutes.

The next day, not much remained of the carcass, and the bear was nowhere to be seen. Of course, no one was volunteering to take a closer look!

It was a different side of bear behavior and an amazing thing to witness. Every trip and every experience gives me more insight into the lives of these charismatic animals. It took me twenty years and countless interactions with wild bears before I saw any sign of real aggression toward a person. That speaks to how rare bear attacks are.

In all of North America, for all of the people recreating, living, and working in bear country, there are, on average, eleven bear attacks per year. Bears’ success in putting on a solid threat display, along with sensational stories and cultural lore, makes us overestimate their danger. Bears would rather avoid people; most of the time, they do just that without us ever knowing we’ve crossed paths.

“Remove humans as a threat to survival, i.e., no hunting or trapping, give it a couple of generations, and you generally find an ecosystem content to look at you like any other animal in their world.” -Jared Lloyd, naturalist & photographer

If you’re interested in purchasing or licensing any images you see here, please email me at SNewenham at exploringnaturephotos.com, and I’ll make it happen.

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