It is entirely possible that I may, on occasion, have given slightly human characteristics to some of the wildlife that snuck into my pictures. If it happened, I blame the children’s books we read to our kids.
And yes, I am talking about the Bernstain Bears. Some of you might remember, “Bear Country, where the Bear family lived in a big tree house down a sunny dirt road …” They walked to the store (upright of course) to buy too much junk food, went to the dentist, wore clothes and all the other things bears normally don’t do.
The books were extremely well written and a big hit around our house. Of course, we knew it was ridiculous to take an animal that can kill to eat and make it appear like a play friend for four-year olds. I mean what were they thinking?
Bears are menacing.
Then I stumble upon these two grizzly cubs. Suddenly I’m trying to figure which one of the Bernstain Bears they were.
And here’s one last twist in this little tale. The first two photos are images of the same grizzly cub.
Krahnpix 
BEAUTIFUL …. having been about 400 yards away from a 1000 lb grizzly and having my heart pound in my ears, just wondering how you got this close without sweating bullets 🙂 Nice work
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I was either in or near a vehicle so that provides some security.
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Only some 🙂
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That’s true. At the same time there have have been countless human/bear encounters over time and only a tiny portion ended badly and most of those were due to humans doing silly things. Of course that may be cold comfort when facing a 1,000 pound grizzly in the wild.
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Ah, it’s Little Bear! Where’s his cardboard box space helmet??
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I knew a few people out there would have been avid followers of those books!
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The best! Do you remember the one where the grandpa bears tells the story of the gnome who was chased by his shoes? The best!
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No but that certainly sounds like a good one.
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You mean to say that bears are not cute and cuddly? Am I not supposed to come close and offer them food? Another myth broken… Love the photos.
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Oh they are definitely cute and cuddly sometimes, it’s just hard to tell if its one of those times or another time! So many myths … Glad you liked the photos.
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A really beautiful set of images Lyle, well done.
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Thanks so much. I have to say that I’ve never had so much fun photographing as the week we found all these bears last spring. Great time.
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Fantastic photos of these magnificent animals! That face in pic #2 is priceless!
I often assign human characteristics to birds and animals we see. Plus we have to ‘talk’ for them, imagining what they might be saying. Who knows? Sometimes we may even be correct.
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That’s what I thot too – and no one can prove we are wrong! Glad you liked them – these truly are magnificent animals.
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Ha ha! As a teacher, I use books about animal characters all the time. My least favourite are those about mice – I mean, MICE? *shudder*
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I guess the mice books just haven’t done their job yet! Read a few more and you will be charmed!!!
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They tend to make the little mice the cutest – and to think of what I would do to one let loose in my house…. 🙂
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The problem with bears is they go from all the way happy to all the way mad in an instant and if your to close when that happens you have a problem. 🙂 Great photos Lyle
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Thanks. Yes that is definitely part of the wild nature. Common sense goes a long way.
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Ah, some of my favorite books!! 🙂 These are gorgeous images… Just beautiful. But of course you’re absolutely correct; never apply human characteristics to wildlife. Like us they have their own divinity in my opinion, but they are trying to survive, and it’s dangerous to get in their ways.
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They are gorgeous animals and so much fun to observe and photograph.
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yes, great photos! they look a bit tame, which is slightly disturbing…
it’s funny that, at least in the children’s books i remember, bears were the cute and friendly ones and wolves were portrayed as evil/mean/sneaky. here in finland, bears have killed more people during the past 100 years than wolves – but that doesn’t really say much since the numbers are 1 for bears (the brown bear) and 0 for the wolves.
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In Canada the wolf is often portrayed as the vicious killer but bears have done more damage. The key point is that often any human/animal encounter that goes bad was because people were careless about the fact they were dealing with wild animals even if they didn’t look like that at times. Including the contact caused by bad human behaviour, the animals have countless opportunities to hurt or kill humans and out of all that contact there are only a few incidents that end badly. I think that’s amazing.
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“Stumble upon?” How does one “stumble upon” grizzly bears? I guess I live in the wrong neighborhood (or maybe grizzlies simply find townhouse living to be too constraining). Each of these shots is amazing.
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Thanks Mike. I really like bear photos and for years had not been able to get many opportunities. Last June we went to Banff and Jasper National Parks in the Rockies specifically to look for bears. It turns out if you go at the right time, to the right place and then commit lots of time, you get rewarded. If you do all that then it’s possible to stumble upon them.
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I wonder if parents who live in areas where there are a lot of bears let their children read books like the Berenstain Bears.
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That is an excellent question!
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