Indrajeet Singh
All images only shot in the wild - No captives.
Wow posts!
- Thread starter agrumpybirdphotographer
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- #77
Hi everyone, I'm new to the site so please forgive me any indiscretions. The most amazing and unexpected encounter I've had was in Botswana in the Okavango Delta about two years ago. Our guide alerted us to the fact and a highly endangered Black Rhino had "wandered" up and into the region around our camp. They took us out to see him and I got this shot. The Rhino was rare enough that many of the guides and staff of the camp had never seen one. While we were there some fully armed Botswana military arrived by helicopter to guard the animal until he could be transported back to safety.
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- Post score: 10
- #78
On 1 June 2014 a birding friend and I were at my cabin in Nova Scotia, and the toilet was plugged up I was up to my elbows in You-know what, with a plumber's snake, and getting nowhere. My friend Rick was outside. There were a few Broad-winged hawks gliding by overhead. Suddenly I heard a yell- "Get you camera out here right away! There's a hawk I can't identify overhead". I said I can't, but he was insistent. So out I went, with hands and camera covered in You-know what, and managed to take this photo of a spectacular Zone-tailed hawk as it circled once then disappeared behind the trees. This was a unique sighting for the north-east of the N.American continent, although a different bird was seen in Massachusetts several weeks later, and there had been a previous sighting in NS back in 1976. This species is uncommon in Central and S.America, and rare in the southern US. This bird was at least 4,000km off course as the crow (or Zone-tailed hawk) flies. Moral - always have your camera with you!
Richard
Richard
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Otto
Well-known member
I think the weather resistant cameras may become a necessity in such cases. To hose them down
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Woody Meristem
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- Post score: 6
- #80
It was 2008, a year with a huge brood of periodical cicadas, I was walking on an old woods road when I saw a female black bear flipping rocks and logs to find cicada nymphs. They're a highly nutritious food for black bears and, in certain years, easy to find -- never tried them myself. The female had two cubs who were busy playing while mom was hard at work. They eventually settled on a small tree as a jungle gym and one climbed the tree as I was busy taking photos with the only camera I had with me a Canon S2, so the photos aren't very good. Suddenly one cub fell from the small branch from which it had been hanging -- the camera captured the beginning of the fall. The cub bounced and went back to playing with it's sibling. In over 50 years of wandering forest and field I've had between 200 and 250 encounters with black bears, including perhaps 50 of females with cubs. Of all that number, only two were concerning and those were both bears that were habituated to humans by either being fed or feeding on garbage.
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- Post score: 29
- #81
Really great story Woody, thanks for contributing to the thread.
I read a book a while back of which I can't recall the name. Written by a Canadian biologist who worked for the wildlife or park service. He collected and analyzed every reported bear attack on record in North America. It was on the order of 90 percent of attacks were by food habituated bears or hunters being attacked by wounded animals. That said, of the predatory attacks the vast majority are by black bears not grizzlies as one might expect. Also bear spray is extremely effective against grizzlies. But with black bears after initially retreating from being sprayed they almost always return to continue the attack.
Woody Meristem
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- Post score: 3
- #83
Yeah, that was Stephen Herrero, he's retired from the university of Calgary and is probably THE expert on bear attacks, both black bears and grizzlies. Herrero has stated that the primary issue with black bears are the year and a half old males who've been driven off by mom and have problems finding food, they occasionally become predators on humans. Contrary to popular opinion, he's indicated that females with cubs apparently don't pose as much of a threat; I've probably encountered close to 50 females with cubs and none of them gave me any cause for concern. Here's a photo from a scanned slide that I took with a 200mm lens on an SLR, the female had denned beneath a fallen tree with her three new cubs. She was aware we were there and would pull the cubs back to her when they tried to crawl away, but never threatened us.
Here's a link to one of Herrero's talks on black bear attacks --
Don't believe everything you hear or watch, there's a lot of BS on the internet and especially YouTube about bear attacks.
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Here's a link to one of Herrero's talks on black bear attacks --
Don't believe everything you hear or watch, there's a lot of BS on the internet and especially YouTube about bear attacks.
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Yes that's the guy. The paper that he referred to in the video is what I read. In the video he does a great job of summarizing the bottom line conclusions.
I think the reputation of female grizzlies protecting their cubs spills over to black bears. But as you indicated there are virtually no recorded incidents of black bear moms with cubs attacking people. A couple of years ago here in Alaska there were two fatal predatory attacks on people within a few days of each other. One was a teenage boy running in an organized trail running race. He texted his mom that a bear was chasing him. A few days later two female government employees working in the bush were attacked. They sprayed the bear but it continued its attack. When the spray ran out both of them fought it with anything that came to hand. Ultimately it killed one and drug her away while the other escaped with bites and scratches. So while rare it does happen. Like he said in the video two fatalities per year in all of North America doesn't seem like much unless it's you or a loved one.
Thanks for the link.
I think the reputation of female grizzlies protecting their cubs spills over to black bears. But as you indicated there are virtually no recorded incidents of black bear moms with cubs attacking people. A couple of years ago here in Alaska there were two fatal predatory attacks on people within a few days of each other. One was a teenage boy running in an organized trail running race. He texted his mom that a bear was chasing him. A few days later two female government employees working in the bush were attacked. They sprayed the bear but it continued its attack. When the spray ran out both of them fought it with anything that came to hand. Ultimately it killed one and drug her away while the other escaped with bites and scratches. So while rare it does happen. Like he said in the video two fatalities per year in all of North America doesn't seem like much unless it's you or a loved one.
Thanks for the link.
IainD
Well-known member
It happened quickly, and everyone remained calm and sensible. But we were aware of how quickly it could turn nasty.....!OMG! Did you have to change your shorts after that?That will get the heart pumping.
Great photo Woody! Thanks for sharing