"Hoss", Glacier National Park

Celestron wrote in post #9126896
Those are great shots ! Love the poses . What lens and how close were you ? A few days ago i saw on the News on TV where a man fell inside a bear pit and it imediately attack him and mauled him and this was all caught on video . They shot the bear to get him off but the bear did survive but i have heard nothing on the man yet . After this i want no closer than a football field length from a bear and right beside my truck .

Thx Celestron. I would say that caged bears are prorbably more dangerous than wild bears. When you enter a caged bear area, that is their tiny territory and many times they feel backed into a corner and will attack. In the wild, as long as you respect distances and don't push on the animal, they are easier to deal with because of escape routes.

jimz66 wrote in post #9140415
You sleep in bear country your CRAZY!!!!! Great shots. Thanks for sharing.

Thx! Yes I love sleeping in bear country. You sleep lighter (even a snowshoe hare outside your tent sounds like a grizzly at 3 AM) but it's worth it. I actually prefer camping to staying in hotels.

You're a braver man than I am, Gunga Din. The only way I'd be taking that shot is with a digiscope!

Nice series, what a great opportunity to see this guy. He is a beast.

Wow, you are a naturalist, good work. Beautiful shots.

Thx Paul A. I plan to post some grizzly shots soon from the same area.

Goodness that bear is huge. Hoss definitely sums him up.

Great shots!! That is a well fed bear. Funny, I sleep better in bear country than I do at home. But then again, I don't have neighbors when camping!!

hahaha I hear you on that one, Eric.

jgrussell wrote in post #9150468
You're a braver man than I am, Gunga Din. The only way I'd be taking that shot is with a digiscope!

uh, would that be because you're not a man?

Great shots. I'd need the 1200mm with stacked 2x converters and be inside a tank. Then I'd feel safe.

me

Hi, Mike!

That's a great bear! He may be the largest black bear I've ever seen posted here on this forum.

Were you able to position yourself wherever & however you wanted to, or were you "directed" by authorities? If I found a great bear like that, I think I'd stick with him all day, if allowed to do so.

I'd wanted to get up to Glacier this November, but the roads on the east side were impassible at the time I wanted to visit.

Thx Tom! Long time no post eh?

I actually tracked this bear myself in the park. It was feeding at a pond and I approached behind some trees. It let me take some shots than walked off. I later found the bear up on a hill near a road. The weather was so bad (30's and 40 MPH wind) that no one was even in the park except for a couple other nutty photogs. I am close with a ranger in Glacier who pretty much lets me do what I want because "I respect the animals" and "don't change their behavior" according to him, so that's cool. He lets me do stuff he wouldn't let other people do because of that. I also ran in front of a car one time at a blind bend to stop the car from plowing into a bull moose just on the other side and the ranger's been cool ever since. That action pretty much got me in with the rangers there. Most rangers love the park critters.

Glacier in November? OMG. East side was nuts in October, and I was camped out. Snow, 50 MPH winds, etc. Moose and bear everywhere. Single greatest wildlife viewing experience I've ever had. I saw so much great wildlife in such a short period of time. The week earlier I made the choice of leaving a hazy Yellowstone and it paid off big. Glacier *always* delivers. Place is just stacked with predators. I was at the classic Wild Goose Island viewing pullout in October, no one else there thanks to the snow and cold weather. I'm just sitting there in awe at the streaks of light coming out of the sky and lighting up the ice fields on the mountains when I see two bald eagles just coasting near the shore line of the lake. As I'm watching this, I hear this "rffffffffffffTTTTT!!!​!" kind of a ripping noise and I see this huge golden eagle just shoot down right on top of the two bald eagles, causing them to rapidly disperse. The golden pulled up and just began soaring back up near the cliffs.....unbelievabl​e stuff.