Mama & Her Cubs

Grizzly Bear -- Yellowstone National Park, WY
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, f/6.3, 1/50s, ISO:640

One of the highlights of this summer's road trip was seeing this grizzly bear and her two cubs feasting on this bison carcass.  We saw five bears on this trip.  The other two were black bears in Grand Teton National Park.

There's potentially a sad story that goes along with this photo.  A couple of weeks after this photo was taken a hiker was killed by a grizzly with two cubs.  She was put down and her cubs sent away to zoos.  She was put down because it wasn't a defensive killing, she hunted the hiker down for food.  The killing happened only a few miles from where I took this picture.

An estimated seven hundred grizzly bears live in Yellowstone.  Out of those seven hundred, how many are mothers with two cubs?  Within that subset, how many were known to frequent that area?  I'm guessing the odds are pretty good that this was the same bear involved with killing of the hiker.  It breaks my heart to think that.

We know we're entering their world when we venture out into a national park like Yellowstone.  How respectful of that environment are we being?  There was a large ranger-managed crowd at this feeding scene we saw.  These bears had been working on the carcass for four days.  They were probably pretty used to the crowds by the end of those four days.  Mama might have even gotten it into her head that one of us might taste good during those four days.  We try to be respectful but whether we like it or not we will have an impact on the lives of the animals we encounter even from a distance.  Something to think about, for me anyway.

Image inspired by Geogypsy's Foto Friday Fun 131, photo #8680.