Life Is Not Perfect and that Includes Yellowstone

THis cinnamon-colored black bear has something wrong with its left elbow. He can't straighten it.
Cinnamon Black Bear, Yellowstone National Park

Yesterday was a good day for bear sightings.   I saw seven black bears and one grizzly.  One of them I know I saw and photographed before because he has a something wrong with his left front leg.  It seems the elbow is locked.  Sometimes he puts it and his whole foreleg on the ground when he walks and other times he puts just his paw on the ground.  Either way he is unbalanced with that locked elbow.  When he goes downhill he just raises his left foreleg and sort of “hops” downhill.

This is the second animal I’ve seen in the last week with a significant problem.  The other was a cow bison with calf.  The cow never put her left hind leg on the ground.  If a grizzly goes after her calf she won’t be able to move well enough to try to fend the grizzly off.

Life can be tough.  I hope they both make it.