This cinnamon black bear sow and her two cubs put on an hour plus show for us in Sequoia National Park Friday (July 25) morning. Deep, dark forest - but that's what makes it a challenge. Nikon D3s body, 500mm lens, ISO 4000, F4 @ 1/200 second, Indura tripod/head. Raw converted to jpg in CS6. This was about a 25' tall stump (white pine I think) and she first tore out that missing section of bark, then used the edge to climb up (higher than shown in this image), and holding on with 3 paws, dug a hole into the stump with her right paw - looking for termites or ants. She tore up a number of stumps, but this one she had to get elevated for. The cub climbed up the stump by her and just watched, then got in her face as she climbed down - the other cub stayed on the ground. Amazing behavior to watch and photograph.
Back to Top
