Ol’ Snagglepuss!

I’ve been slowly running out of disk space on my 2TB external hard drive, my primary storage area for all my images, so I’ve started going through my images (2004 thru 2012) to delete the “less desirable” images. Yeh, as a photographer I know that I should keep up with editing, but this is a very difficult task to do. First, editing at a computer is probably the least fun job associated with photography! Second, I’d much rather be outdoors shooting, any day! And third, as all photographers know, it is difficult to hit the DELETE key to most photos … photographing nature often yields many great experiences and emotions, and who can simply DELETE these away? Alas, it still needs to be done!

Anyway, while editing this past week, I found some interesting images that I am going to share in today’s post. A couple of days ago, I published a post with some Greater Roadrunner images. I received a few comments back from readers that the roadrunner images brought back fond memories of watching Wylie Coyote as he constantly, and unsuccessfully, tried to capture the roadrunner (a famous cartoon from my childhood days). Well, the title of today’s post might also bring back some memories of another famous cartoon character … Snagglepuss, the famous lion.

A few years ago, while photographing the Alaska Brown Bear (Ursula arctos) at Hallo Bay, a rather large boar walked up Clint’s Creek, looking for salmon running up the creek to reach their spawning grounds. But this bear was not like most of the bears … he had been involved in a quite serious fight, most likely with another boar. The tell-tale sign? A tooth hanging out the side of his mouth (note: these images are not quality images due to shooting in the middle of the day, poor sun angle, etc., but I want to share the experience, not the quality of photography):

Brown Bear boar with loose tooth

Brown Bear boar with loose tooth

 

And as he approached us, in addition to the loose tooth, we also noticed that there were several places along the bear’s neck where the hair was missing … another obvious sign of a fight:

Brown Bear boar with loose tooth

It really makes one wonder what the other bear looked like! And there have been only a handful of times when a bear gave me chills. This was one of those times … here was a large, obviously not a pushover of a bear. And I couldn’t keep from wondering if his demeanor was dampened by the pain that loose tooth must have caused! And whether his tolerance to us would be impacted! But he passed by us and kept moving down the creek … Whew!

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Posted in Mammals, Nature Photography, Travel Photography
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