Waiting Patiently Up a Tree

Before my private photography sessions at the American Bear Association I had to take a brief class on bear safety. One rule was to always be aware of where the bears are. This may seem obvious but it was easy to focus on one bear and forget to continually look all around for others.

Yearling

One bear I focused on was a yearling male black bear (below). Yearlings are not yet fully grown and are recently on their own. They no longer have the protection and guidance of mom so they spend a lot of time in trees assessing the world below.

Yearling Black Bear 11x15” watercolor ©2020 Susan McDonnell Available at Abend Gallery

This young bear was up in a tree anxiously pacing between the branches. There was an adult male bear below and he wasn’t going to come down until the older bear left.

The pacing and stopping to look went on for quite some time. Finally the yearling settled down on a branch to patiently wait (below).

Yearling 15x11” watercolor ©2018 Susan McDonnell Private collection Print available here

The moment the adult bear left the young bear quickly came down the tree. Whew, it’s not easy being a bear.

July 17, 2022