To order: Black Bears A Natural History
Stories behind the scenes:
The roots of this book began in March of 1993 with a trip to the Chapleau Gamer Reserve in Ontario to do a story on the black bear research being done by Dr. Martyn Obbard and the Ministry of Natural Resources. (That story can be found in this book with additional video support in Black Bear Videos.)
But there are many events that led up to that beginning. I started camping with my parents in Algonquin Park when I was 15. A visit to the park dump to see the bears was always a highlight and over the next few summers I began making trips there on my own whenever I cold borrow my Dad's car. Filming the bears with a super 8mm camera was fun and challenging. It led to many encounters with bears.
In 1969 and 1970 I drove and hitch-hiked across Canada with a friend. It was my first experience in the Rockies and Alaska. Bears were high on my list to photograph. On one memorable occasion, Dan happened to be using the camp outhouse when a black bear decided to scratch an itch using the privy's door as a backscratcher. Dan, thinking it was me clowning around tried to shove the door open. I got a laugh out of that. Much later so did he.
In 1976 my wife and I drove to Alaska and to my wife's everlasting credit our marriage survived. To say there were many trials on that trip would be an understatement. Flask floods. Closed highways. Rain. More rain. Trees falling on our tent. And black bears! Two incidents stand out.
Everyone seems to have a black bear story and I enjoy hearing them. I have many too but due to the nature of this book most of my personal stories were left out (by my choice).
The Incident of the Frying Pan.
We were camped beside the Alaska Highway in BC. I was cooking baked beans using an iron frying pan. It smelled great and that was when a large male black bear showed up. We left the frying pan to the bear and retreated to our car. I cleverly decided to charge the bear with sort bursts of sudden forward movements of the car. Charge. Reverse. Charge.
I could hear somebody yelling as I got ready to repeat the action. Thinking it was cheering I rolled down my window to hear the encouragement. "You are running over your water container!" The bear finished his meal and left. We bought a new water container.
The Incident of the Drunken Sasquatch
We were camped in Banff National Park on our way home. We were asleep in our little two person tent when there arose such a clatter outside with yelling and banging. We heard thump, thump and something tripped over our guy-ropes, The tent shook. "What was that? " my wife asked. "Probably a drunk" I said with as much confidence as I could muster while thinking at the same time "Sasquatch".
We woke the next morning to see a tall dark person in a black coat emptying his trunk. It took a second to register it was a bear.
I chased it off. My wife never camped again.
Since then I have enjoyed photographing literally hundreds of black bears as well as polar and grizzly/brown bears. I've seen them from cars, canoes, helicopters, planes, horseback, hiking trails, lodges, campsites and (yes) landfills as I traveled in search of them. I've spent time in the field with a number of researchers, interviewed many others and corresponded with dozens more. The amount of material on the internet has greatly added to my understanding of black bears.
The book gives you some impression of the places I've sought bears.
Lots of stories for sure.
The roots of this book began in March of 1993 with a trip to the Chapleau Gamer Reserve in Ontario to do a story on the black bear research being done by Dr. Martyn Obbard and the Ministry of Natural Resources. (That story can be found in this book with additional video support in Black Bear Videos.)
But there are many events that led up to that beginning. I started camping with my parents in Algonquin Park when I was 15. A visit to the park dump to see the bears was always a highlight and over the next few summers I began making trips there on my own whenever I cold borrow my Dad's car. Filming the bears with a super 8mm camera was fun and challenging. It led to many encounters with bears.
In 1969 and 1970 I drove and hitch-hiked across Canada with a friend. It was my first experience in the Rockies and Alaska. Bears were high on my list to photograph. On one memorable occasion, Dan happened to be using the camp outhouse when a black bear decided to scratch an itch using the privy's door as a backscratcher. Dan, thinking it was me clowning around tried to shove the door open. I got a laugh out of that. Much later so did he.
In 1976 my wife and I drove to Alaska and to my wife's everlasting credit our marriage survived. To say there were many trials on that trip would be an understatement. Flask floods. Closed highways. Rain. More rain. Trees falling on our tent. And black bears! Two incidents stand out.
Everyone seems to have a black bear story and I enjoy hearing them. I have many too but due to the nature of this book most of my personal stories were left out (by my choice).
The Incident of the Frying Pan.
We were camped beside the Alaska Highway in BC. I was cooking baked beans using an iron frying pan. It smelled great and that was when a large male black bear showed up. We left the frying pan to the bear and retreated to our car. I cleverly decided to charge the bear with sort bursts of sudden forward movements of the car. Charge. Reverse. Charge.
I could hear somebody yelling as I got ready to repeat the action. Thinking it was cheering I rolled down my window to hear the encouragement. "You are running over your water container!" The bear finished his meal and left. We bought a new water container.
The Incident of the Drunken Sasquatch
We were camped in Banff National Park on our way home. We were asleep in our little two person tent when there arose such a clatter outside with yelling and banging. We heard thump, thump and something tripped over our guy-ropes, The tent shook. "What was that? " my wife asked. "Probably a drunk" I said with as much confidence as I could muster while thinking at the same time "Sasquatch".
We woke the next morning to see a tall dark person in a black coat emptying his trunk. It took a second to register it was a bear.
I chased it off. My wife never camped again.
Since then I have enjoyed photographing literally hundreds of black bears as well as polar and grizzly/brown bears. I've seen them from cars, canoes, helicopters, planes, horseback, hiking trails, lodges, campsites and (yes) landfills as I traveled in search of them. I've spent time in the field with a number of researchers, interviewed many others and corresponded with dozens more. The amount of material on the internet has greatly added to my understanding of black bears.
The book gives you some impression of the places I've sought bears.
Lots of stories for sure.