Tag: Black Bear | Cades Cove Gallery

Posts tagged ‘Black Bear’

Smoky Mountain Black Bears

Black Bear Cub climbing tree in the Great Smoky Mountains.

The American Black Bear that we see here in the Smoky Mountains and Cades Cove are also found in the other mountainous areas of the United States. Those areas include all the Appalachian mountains, Ozark Mountains, Rocky Mountains and ranges in California up through Alaska. The state of California has the largest population of Black Bears per state. They are noticeably mostly absent from the Ohio Valley and Midwest regions of the US.

Estimates have the population of American Black Bear at around 500,000 in the US. The American Black Bear range also includes almost all of Canada and parts of Northern Mexico. Canada also has a population similar to the US at around 500,000, and Mexico has just a small population in very small pockets of their country. This brings the total population of American Black Bears in the world to around 1 million individuals. They are found nowhere else in the world, and the closest cousin is the Asian Black Bear. They are only a distant cousin to the Brown Bear that sometimes shares the same territory in the Northwest.

Although their namesake derives from the most common color black, American Black Bears range in all shades between black and white. In the Northeast and Southeast, there tends to be around 70% of the population that are black. The number of black colored bears in the Rockies and western states leans more to 50% of the population. There are as many as 15 different subspecies of the American Black Bear. One of those subspecies is the Kermode Bear also called Spirit Bear which has a recessive gene that results in 10% being white in color. These are found in British Columbia.

Smoky Mountain Black Bears males average around 250 pounds while females are just over 100 pounds. This is an extreme difference and can sometimes be used to tell the sex of a mature bear. Some other physical appearance differences are the shape and size of the head and its parts. Adult females tend to show a more elongated face (more dog like) and longer taller ears. An adult male’s head and face has more round like features, and their ears have a more squatty appearance. Both males and females can run up to 25-30mph if they have to. They are extremely strong and able to lift 300 lbs. with a single lift of a front forearm. What is more amazing is the dexterity they have along with that strength. They are able to use their paws and claws to do the smallest and most difficult precise movements when foraging and feeding. They hear and see better than humans, but their most amazing sense is smell. They can smell 7x better than a domestic dog. Females can breed as early as 3 years old, and American Black Bears live on average to be 18 years old in the wild.

As a nature and wildlife photographer, one of my great joys is observing and photographing black bears in the Smoky Mountains. I have spent many hours learning about the habits of our local bears (and other wildlife), and of course photographing them. Sharing the wonder of nature with others is my passion, so if you are interested in black bear photography stop by my gallery (Cades Cove Gallery, Townsend, TN) or check out our online store. I also provide customized guided tours for individuals and small groups. This allows me to share my passion with others and to help them “get the shot” themselves plus improve their photography skills.

References: Wikipedia contributors. (2020, May 11). American black bear. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:09, May 12, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=American_black_bear&oldid=956148785

American Black Bear

Cherry Pie

This is one of my 1st Black Bear images to sell off the charts. In fact many of you still following my page have this framed print hanging on your wall. Taken back in August of 2010 over 10 years ago, it is an image that is the topic for today.

Todays topic is sharing photography. Many novice nature photographers run around with the same people most of the time. That is not what I am talking about today. As my career began to take off, I found great fun in sharing my skills and knowledge with others. I would buy a piece of photo gear from someone local and invite them to shoot with me. A week later there would be a new member to the local photo club, and I would ask them to join me on a photo shoot. You get the idea.

Some years later, I began having people ask me to guide them. Some are from the South Eastern US and some much further away. In the last few years, I have even had a few international travelers commission me to guide them. Like teaching, it has been very gratifying sharing Nature and Wildlife Photography with others and doing it for a living now for 13 years come June.

But the photography sharing I want to tell you about today is much more simple and gratifying than all the above. My favorite sharing is with family. This is especially true of sharing photography with your children. Both my children were raised here in East Tennessee, and they don’t miss a trip to Cades Cove when they return to the area. They grew up with a father who had them hiking, fishing and in the woods most of the time. Of course I was always toting a camera around with me everywhere we went.

My daughter graduated high school and went off to college. When she returned, she became my social media advisor. She also was in charge of my images and storage of them on drives and in LightRoom. She is married now and has a family of her own. They return around once a year, and she usually visits the Smoky Mountains with them just as I did with her.

My son is a Navy man and has been for 11 years now. He is active Sea Duty which means he is away from the US as much as 6 months a year. He calls home Whidbey Island in Washington state. He rarely makes it home to Tennessee, but when he does it usually means a trip to Cades Cove, and if it is in the Fall, a UT football game. I wanted to tell you about this family sharing of nature and photography for all these reasons mentioned and more. You see, I will never forget the day I took this image. My son and I were spending the day together, and I decided it would be a good time to give him a photography lesson. I set him up with a camera/lens combo and gave him a quick lesson. By 8:30am we were on a momma and (3) 2nd year cubs. Now usually momma bears release their 2nd year cubs on their own by August. They ate from a cherry tree and my son was having the time of his life snapping away at the 4 bears.

All of a sudden the cherries were running out, and they left. We were thinking about leaving when I spotted another Black Bear peaking from the woods. Everyone else had just left, and she was making sure it was safe to go to the cherry tree. She came out with (3) young cubs about 8 months old. Together we photographed the family in the tree. You see the older cubs couldn’t get the cherries on the smaller limbs because of their heavy body weight. This was not a problem for the younger and smaller cubs. During this photography sharing time with my son I was able to get this shot entitled “Cherry Pie”. Thank you all for following my page and all your financial and moral support through my career.

Black Bear Identification

A common mistake that people and even beginner photographers make is to assume that any large bear is a male. They know that male bears can get larger than females and as a result call all large bears male. One of the ways to determine the correct sex of an American Black Bear is head shape and size and the ear size in relation to the head. Typically a female has a longer more dog like face and the ears appear large. The male on the other hand has a rounder face and the ears appear smaller. Below is an image of a female American Black Bear.

Momma Black Bear Sleeping