EPJ - 1st HM

Gallery: EPA 2012Posted October 12, 20122,848 views10 comments

1st Honorable Mention - Environmental Photojournalism

Up a Tree & On Thin Ice

In Colorado, the Division of Wildlife has a Two Strikes and Your Out policy for bears. A bear who's behavior is deemed threatening is captured, tagged for identification and relocated. If that same bear returns or continues the same behavior elsewhere, it is recaptured and humanely destroyed.

This bear has been tagged, relocated, and then has moved back into a sparsely populated area in my neighborhood. He's treading on thin ice, but he hopefully has learned to stay away from people. I was walking by on a road with my dogs (about 100 feet away from the bear (this image is about a 50% crop), and we saw him up about 20 feet in this tree, he had climbed up there to get to the berries (behind his head). When he saw us he looked at us for just a few seconds and I shot off a burst of a few shots and he then shot up the tree another ten feet. Seeing he already had a tag we quickly walked away and he immediately climbed down and started feasting again.

Please see larger photo for better detail. Any critique or comments would be appreciated!

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on October 12, 2012 at 12:29 PM

Poor bear - hope he stays out of people's way.
Nice look at the bear and good eye contact. Really nice fur detail.
Very effective in B&W, but I also long to see the color version - perhaps with those purple berries, greens, and tree trunk.
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on October 12, 2012 at 9:33 PM

Nice photo and interesting story. I like the position you caught the bear in, good eye contact. I also would like to see the color version. Thanks for posting.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Fricke on October 12, 2012 at 11:30 PM

Thanks for your comments Sandy and John, here is the color version

Registered on January 19, 2007, 133 Posts, 1448 Comments

Comment posted by Jenaya Launstein on October 14, 2012 at 6:14 PM

Poor guy! He better stick to the woods! He is such an interesting colour...very cool, though! Nice image, Scott. I don't know which I prefer between the B&W and the colour, they both look good.

Registered on February 8, 2011, 254 Posts, 1302 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on October 17, 2012 at 5:25 PM

Excellent catch Scott, Congratulations on the WP.

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Ed Williams on October 18, 2012 at 1:11 AM

Great shot Scott. Congratulations on the WP.

Registered on December 28, 2010, 636 Posts, 3499 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on January 5, 2013 at 1:09 PM

Scutt - many congrats for the 2012 EPJ - 1st HM ! A very telling image. Hopefully, he HAS learned his lesson and has a long and safe life now.
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on January 5, 2013 at 8:15 PM

Congratulations on the EPA, Scott!

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by Wayne Jones on January 8, 2013 at 6:19 PM

Scott, Congratulations on the EPA. From your story, it sounds like the bear is not really comfortable around people, so hopefully the conditioning from its experience will have a lasting effect.

Registered on April 18, 2007, 953 Posts, 6435 Comments

Comment posted by Craig Myers on January 23, 2013 at 1:16 AM

Your choice of b-w really cuts through the busy surroundings to put all the attention on the ursine bad boy. Congratulations on the honor.

Registered on September 1, 2008, 85 Posts, 757 Comments