Brown Bears Last Day...

There were five people in our group all week. Three of them were leaving this morning, so after our first game drive and lunch we saw them off. It was quite a dramatic departure as two boars were sparring on the beach. 

Boars fighting on the beach

Although that was a nice farewell for them it must have been bitter sweet for them as all of their good glass was packed, so they just watched and enjoyed the show.


After supper I decided that I would stay at the lodge rather than going out on the last game drive because the bears inevitably came back to the lodge area in the evening anyway, so I thought I would wait for them. Sure enough, the blonde twins showed up. I got my camera gear together and went out to photograph them. I was just a few feet away from the driveway of the lodge. I decided I wasn't going to wander too far off on my own. I was photographing one of the twins when out of the blue he ran at me a bit, so I yelled at him and he backed off. At this point he was far too close for my big lens so I thought I would back up a bit. I got a little distracted as I was trying to focus through my lens and didn't realize what he was up to. Thankfully a guide on a quad from the lodge next door came speeding to my rescue and scared the little trouble maker off as he was running at me and I didn't realize it. You really have to pay attention to the bears as they can really cover a lot of distance in just a few seconds.

Starting to Charge

In retrospect I should have known better. This teenager is last years cub, so is about 16 months old. He started walking like he was bowl-legged. This was an aggressive walk. One second he was eating grass, the next he started walking like in the picture, then stupidly I took my eye off him and the next thing I knew he was coming at me at a good clip. He ran off pretty quickly when the quad came speeding up. Thankfully I was able to learn this lesson unscathed. I will know better for next time.


That's it for the brown bear and puffin photography for this trip. I invite you to visit our  main gallery and website. In addition to brown bear and puffin prints, I will be making brown bear greeting cards shortly. 


If you are an Edmontonian, my next exhibit goes up in Scotia Place from July 29th to August 31st. I hope to see you there.