Continuing where I left off with yesterday’s post on Anan Creek, Alaska, today’s post of Anan Creek also exemplifies my frequent “Fun Friday” posts. This first image was taken of a small, spring Black Bear (Ursus americanus) cub. In yesterday’s post, I mentioned the wildlife observatory at Anan Creek. This observatory resembles a very large, wooden deck that has a wooden fence completely surrounding it; in essence, people enter this area and the wooden fence “prevents” black bears from coming into contact with humans (although from what I recall, a bear could easily enter if it really wanted to). A portion of this deck is covered for protection from rain. Inside this fenced area, a flight of wooden steps leads down to a photo blind that is located along Anan Creek, the bears’ favorite fishing hole. Just outside the fenced area, trees and bear trails abound. One of the things I found to be interesting is that momma black bears often “shoe” their cubs up one of these trees … kind of like the tree was babysitting, while mom waddled down to the creek to catch some fish. From inside the fenced area, I captured this little guy, halfway up the tree but not too comfortable with humans being close by:
And another photo from this location, a pair of Black Bear spring cubs impatiently awaiting mom’s return from the river:
I think you can see why this is a very special place to visit, and why I’m looking forward to returning there soon! With a bit of luck, we’ll again have spring cubs to photograph. I’ll post some adult Black Bears in the next post about Anan Creek.
