Category: Black Bear

Black Bear

Black Bear, Yellowstone National Park

This is a photo of a cinnamon-colored black bear resting on a rock outcrop in Yellowstone National Park.

As I was driving into Lamar Valley one afternoon in early June, there were some cars parked along the road where there is a large outcrop just on the other side of the Lamar River.  I stopped and asked a fellow what they were looking at and he pointed out this cinnamon-phase black bear, which was presumably asleep.   Someone said it might be dead because it hadn’t moved a muscle in the time that person had been watching it.  It looked to me like it was in a natural sleeping position so I got my tripod out of the car and put my 800mm lens on it.  The bear was over 100 yards away, which meant to me getting good quality photos was going to be iffy, especially with the high ISO conditions.  It finally stirred and looked at us.  After a while, it got up and walked away.

Black Bear

Black Bear, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of a soaking-wet black bear after it swam across a pond.

I just got back from Yellowstone.  I used to go to Yellowstone for a month each spring, but I hadn’t been there since 2015.  A lot has changed.  Gardiner, where I stay, has been greatly changed by the fire several years ago. The park has changed due to the flood in June of 2022.  It seems to me some wildlife numbers have changed too.  I saw a lot less elk than I think I used to see.  I googled elk numbers and found an interesting article about elk numbers here.   I also saw a lot more bears than I was used to.  I didn’t google that.

Anyway, here’s one of those bears that I photographed near the Yellowstone Picnic Area.  It had just been in that pond across the road from the picnic area and was walking back toward the road.

Black Bear

The Best Place to Find Black Bears in Yellowstone National Park

Photo of black bear feeding on grass.
The Salad Days of Early May

The best area to find black bears Yellowstone, at least in the spring, is between Tower Junction and Tower Falls.   There is a small lake along the road in that area called Rainy Lake.  Next to the lake is a large meadow which bears use for grazing.  This young bear was in the meadow a lot last May.  Pay special attention to the stretch between the lake and Calcite Springs Overlook.

Black Bear

Big Black Bear, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of large cinnamon black bear.
Big Boy

About the only negative to wildlife photography in Yellowstone is having to go through all your photos to separate the chaff from the wheat.  I shoot about 1,000 images a day and there is no time to go through them until I get home.  Going through 14,000 images is a daunting task.    I’ve started with black bears and I still have 1,800 black bear photos to delete or save.

This photo was taken at sunset at Phantom Lake using a 500mm lens and 1.4 tele-extender.  When shooting early and late in the day the delete rate goes up because it gets harder to stop subject movement.  This image was shot at 125th of a second at ISO 2,000.  I don’t like raising the ISO much above 800 but I had to go to 2000 to make sure I at least got some sharp photos of the animal standing still and, hopefully, moving as well.

Black Bear

A Black Bear Protects an Elk Carcass, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of cinnamon black bear lying on elk carcass.
“This one’s mine.”

The road over Dunraven Pass opened May 29.  I didn’t know the pass had been cleared until yesterday.  As I began the drive over it from Tower to Canyon I quickly saw a bunch of cars parked.  It turns out the day the pass opened some people found a wolf kill of an elk.  By the time I came along most of the carcass had been consumed and a cinnamon black bear was in possession of it.  One wolf came by and the bear was able to keep possession.  I proceeded over Dunraven Pass to Canyon and didn’t see anything of interest.

 

Spring Cubs at Play

Photo of two black bear spring cubs.
Spring Cubs at Play

In my previous post I overstated my case when I said bears were getting hard to find because they weren’t spending all their time feeding on grass, but were taking advantage of elk calving.  There isn’t an elk calf (or other prey species) around every turn for the bears so they haven’t completely stopped eating grass.  I photographed these cubs yesterday.  They were playing king of the hill while their mother grazed on grass.  I’m 99 per cent sure they’re the same cubs that were in an earlier blog because they are in  the same location.  I still haven’t seen an elk calf.  I also haven’t seen any badgers.  I’ve seen a lot of other critters though.  One thing I’m amazed at is how many mountain bluebirds I’ve seen and photographed.

Black Bear, Grizzly Bear, Pronghorn

Yellowstone’s Bears Have Disappeared

Well, not really.  It’s just that they’re not grazing on grass as much any more and thus not as easy to see.  Elk (and pronghorn and bighorn) are giving birth and the word is out.  Grass was OK when meat wasn’t readily available, but now that meat is available the bears don’t have to settle for grass.  They need the protein to survive.  As I was driving from Mammoth to Gardiner yesterday there was a traffic jam mid-way due to a black bear kill of an elk calf.  This can be unsettling when you experience it, but that’s nature and let’s not forget most of us eat meat and it’s not much different, except we rely mostly on others to do our bidding.

Photo of pronghorn doe nursing fawn.
Mom and Baby

I don’t have any photos of elk calves yet, but I saw this female pronghorn and her twins close to the Roosevelt Arch the past couple of days.  I’ve gotten attached to them from photographing them.  I hope they survive the next four days or so until then can keep up with mom.