Bears in the neighborhood.
At the moment, I live in New Jersey, right where the suburbs of the 'city' meet the countryside. New Jersey is remarkable for a lot of reasons. Today, let us talk of my favorite topic, Bears.
Not the Chicago Bears, mind you, I mean the black fuzzy bears that look so cute you want to reach out and pet them. Of course, you need to have a friend along. Afterwards someone will be transporting parts of your carcass to the hospital. Who better than a friend, right? I digress, Death and Dismemberment notwithstanding, the bears are seriously cute.
For some reason, I seem to attract bears. Maybe I need to change my hair care products, or finally cease wearing the sneakers I've had for 4 years. Regardless, I have 6 bear sightings in less than a year.
I have seen 6 wild bears. 3 I saw on foot. 3, I just saw in my neighborhood as I was leaving for a sandwich.
Professional Bearologists will tell you to leave the bears alone. They say do not follow the bears, stay far away. This is precisely what I did not do.
I followed the bears (doing 1MPH in my car with the window open) across three lots trying to take a sensible picture with my camera phone. I was sure they would jump through the window and start mauling at any second. The thought of getting up close pictures was worth the risk.
As you can tell from the stellar image quality, it was not worth the risk. I should have left the phone in my pocket and just watched the bears.
So now, in place of getting a new MacBook, I am looking for a new cellphone/pda with an excellent camera. I am leaning towards the Blackberry Pearl
Any recommendations, suggestions, personal anectdotes?
<img src=http://nicole.secretagents.com/pictures/alaska/jul...;
Those are nails on the bottom of that sign to keep the bears from destroying it!
This one is an OH $#!^ they see us!
http://nicole.secretagents.com/pictures/alaska/jul...
Here's a whole bunch:
http://nicole.secretagents.com/pictures/alaska/jul...
You can't see it from the pics, but they were chowing on a caribou.
WOW, that is a really convincing warning sign. I imagine in Alaska the bear population encompasses more than the goofily cute black bears of New Jersey. Did you have any sightings in Alaska?
DW
Thanks for the pics. I just went through your shots, man, you got to see a lot of wildlife for sure. Any idea what size the bears are?
Most people give bear size in pounds, but this to me seems like a foolish way to do it. I mean, once you have the bear on the scale, you then have to measure it, record it and get the bear of the scale before he HariKari's you.
DW
We saw about 15-20 bears on that trip. Most of them were 1/2-1 mile away (Denali is really flat). But close enough that if they wanted to, they could have eaten us in one gulp.