Bears of the McNeil River

by Mark Hardgrave

 

Welcome to Bears of the McNeil River. In late August of 1998 I was one of the lucky 140 that get to visit the McNeil River Sanctuary. The following pages are photographs from that trip. When I get all the images loaded you will be able to click on the smaller images and see a much larger image.

The photo to the left is "Teddy". All the bears at McNeil have names given to them by the rangers and biologists that work there. "Teddy" is a favorite at McNeil and has visited the sanctuary for many years. Of all the bears at McNeil, she is the most tolerant of humans. Often, as she did on this day, she will lay within a few feet of the viewing pad and take a nap or nurse her cubs. Later in this page you have the opportunity to see just how close she and her cub got to us on the viewing pad. Photo was taken with a Nikon F4s, Nikkor 300 2.8 EDIF, Fuji Provia film.

This photo was taken near the island about a mile below the McNeil falls. Each bear has a unique way of fishing. Some bears catch their fish and eat them in the water. Others will bring them out of the water and eat them on the bank like this one did. She had just finished off a salmon when this photo was taken. Note the blood on her face. She came right up in front of us (about 20 to 30 feet) and ate the salmon. The female bears usually fish down stream from the falls, while the males are fishing at the falls. Nikon F4s, Nikkor 300 2.8 EDIF, Fuji Velvia film.

This sow's coat was in the process of changing for winter. She was about 600 to 800 lbs., a fairly large female brown bear. I shot about 8 rolls of film on this bear in the course of about several minutes. This shot was taken on our first day at McNeil. The weather was great and the sun had just came out to allow me to switch to some Fuji Velvia. Velvia really saturates blues and reds. Photo taken with Nikon F4s, Nikkor 300 2.8 EDIF, Fuji Velvia film. This is the same bear as in the photo above. You really get a good idea how big these guys are when they are 20 feet away.

This is one of my favorite's of "Teddy" as she was walking by us on the upper viewing pad at McNeil falls. She passed by the pad so close I wondered if I would be able to focus on her. Since 300 mm was the largest lens I was using at McNeil, I was excited when they would come by so close to get these "up close" shots. Nikon F4s, Nikkor 300 2.8 EDIF, Fuji Provia Film.