Black Bears

This little one was munching on unripe wild blueberries alongside the road in the Sandilands area.  It was a small bear but we did not see the momma bear anywhere – perhaps she was in the bush.  Not taking any chances of encountering an angry mother bear, these photos were taken from my vehicle and this little bear did not appear disturbed by the parked car.

Enjoy!

~Sharon

We usually see black bears on land but a few years back in the Whiteshell this black bear was swimming across a lake from shore to shore.  Black bears are excellent swimmers and I was amazed at how fast he/she managed to cross the lake – it was quite a wide body of water perhaps a 1/4 mile across.   We followed by boat at a distance both for safety and not to disturb the swimming bear.  When the bear reached shore dripping wet it shook its furry coat as a large dog would and water flew everywhere.  The photos posted today are scanned  from my old files.  As the date of this post is now December, the bears will be in their dormant state under the snow in their dens where their heart rate will drop to about 8 beats per minute.  Did you know their foot pads peel off during the winter to allow for new tissue?  Did you also know they do not defecate or urinate during this time and the nitrogen is biochemically re-cycled by their body back into proteins.  Cubs will be born in February and emerge in the spring with the mother bear.

Enjoy!

~Sharon

I always enjoy sighting a bear in its natural surroundings but at a distance of course. Unfortunately bears will frequent campgrounds and cottage areas looking for easy food which results in them being “bear trapped” by natural resources. The worse case scenario for re-offending nuisance bears is they may be put down. The mother bear on the left brought her two cubs to my car, sniffing around the trunk as there was food in it.  So, the lesson here is, try to keep bears in the wild where they belong and do not encourage them by leaving food /garbage which is accessible to them in campgrounds. Yes, they will wander in from time to time but won’t become problem bears if there is nothing for them to eat.

Below, black  bear cub standing up against trunk of my car – obviously attracted by the scent of food from the trunk. This was June, everything was late this year due to weather and I am sure these bears were very hungry.

The Bears below are from the Bear Sanctuary in Ely, Minnesota.  This is an interesting place to visit as you can see the bears in their natural surroundings doing what bears do.   Although enclosed by fencing, it is not visible to visitors, the enclosure is in a large treed area giving the bears plenty of room to roam around. A visitor centre at the Sanctuary houses everything anyone would ever want to know about  bears and more – it was every interesting and educational. The brown bear is no doubt one of the largest bears I have ever seen.  The two black bears, named Lucky and Ted were a lot of fun to watch.  Ted is a large male who had much patience for the playful Lucky who kept jumping and chewing on him.  Just like a kid !  Check out the JUST FOR FUN VIDEO CLIP ( on right) to see a video of Lucky and Ted in action.