[Photo: Jamie Lewis spies a black bear, Terra Nova, 2008 by Alex McGruer]
I collect bear scat. Photos that is. One of several photo projects: this one is about developing a field guide to scat of NL animals. Well, someone has to do it.
Meanwhile, on a scouting trip this past weekend, paddling friends Alex McGruer and Jamie Lewis saw the real McCoy. They drove out to Terra Nova National Park to paddle a beginner's day route for the upcoming annual Kayakers Retreat. And they were rewarded with a black bear close by on shore. Seems Terra Nova has an increasing population of these bears. They just about always scamper off when people show up. (Unless tourists feed them... please don't!) Still, this has reinforced my conviction about staying in a cabin again instead of tenting this year. Cold and damp is one thing... but having some great clawed, hairy and hungry animal looking at a few mms of cloth is, well, a definite deterrent.
7 comments:
Interesting photos... One bare bearing down on another bear!
Those few mm's of tent material can actually save your life when under attack. As soon as the bear opens its mouth to swallow you, stuff as much of the tent down its gullet as you can. Relax with a toddy of rhum while the bear chokes to death. Note, I haven't had the chance to try this method, but it ought to work...
hey michael... are you still in 'gator land or back in bear land?
May I offer the NYC variety of your fascinating current project?
Skittely-bittely shoowop shoowop
skootelly wootelly doop-ah-bebop
Hepcat scat...
(sorry, I will go away now!)
:D
bonnie, haven't a clue, but if it works for you... well, thanks for the NY scat.. :) A
Bear land and happy to be home! :-)
Brown bears have been extinct in Scotland for at least 1000 years and wolves for about 300. Sad though this is, it does make camping more relaxing.
All the same, we were woken yesterday morning (on the island of Scarba) by a very persistant cuckoo.
Douglas - I had no idea there'd been bears in Scotland, or wolves. Then again, it's a bit before my time. Brown bears are definitely more pesky than black. Cuckoos, eh? sounds like the perfect alarm clock for kayakers.
oh - btw - we don't have snakes or skunks or lime disease in Newfoundland. That makes hiking & camping particularly pleasant. A
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