Black Bear Bonanza

As I was driving through Yellowstone I came upon what at first looked like a traffic jam. I've been there enough to know that traffic jams usually mean animals, and sure enough, this one was caused by a young black bear close to the road. I finally passed him and parked a bit further up the road so as not to contribute to the jam, then walked back down.

I must have spent close to half an hour watching and taking pics. I took over a hundred, but whittled it down to about thirty. There were lots of people milling about, cameras clicking, kids yelling, but we might as well have been flies for all the bear cared (see what I did there?). He went about his business (which seemed to consist of smelling every flower in the meadow individually) at a leisurely pace, sometimes stopping to scratch himself or studying a flower extra super intently.

At the same time, he was so cute and fluffy you just wanted to walk down there, grab his little face and blow a raspberry into his fur. Supposing, against all odds that you'd survive this, you would be as likely as not to repeat it if you saw him again; he was that precious.

All pics here.

Species: Black bear. Habitat: Yellowstone. Likes: Honey, berries and humans. Goal in life: To inspect each straw in the meadow individually.






Immediately after this pic was taken, he went up on his hind legs. I didn't catch it on cam, sowwy.


It's a bear's life out there in the meadow.