A Black Bear Story

Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge is about 2 1/2 hours by car from Virginia Beach, in Manteo, NC. This refuge contains over 154,000 acres and is one of the last significant habitats for Black Bear along the East Coast. In fact, one of the reasons the refuge was established was to provide habitat for black bears.
I drove down there with two girlfriends this past June. We were looking specifically to see and photograph black bears. We are huge fans! This is the time of year that the females typically bring their young cubs out in the fields to feed. We were not disappointed. We saw two families of them….so very sweet.
As we were driving down a very gravelly road, we heard a vehicle honking. We came to an intersection in the refuge and saw the reason why:  A pickup truck was honking at a black bear, to move along, apparently. We were shocked! We sat there just waiting to see what would happen. Well, the young black bear came right towards us. Not much was said except, “get ready ladies, time to shoot this bear!” Or something like that.
The bear continued to approach our vehicle. It crossed the road once, then came back, approaching us on the right (passenger side). There was water on that side, so we were unsure of where the bear would go, although we had seen them swim. Now, I was shooting with a 200-500mm telephoto lens which I was beginning to realize was way too much. I quickly grabbed another camera with a smaller lens; I sure didn’t want to miss this! So, with the camera in one hand but with my finger on the passenger window switch, I managed just 2 shots. The bear was so close, we could smell its breath. Now I was wishing I was using my cell phone! But it ambled right by us, never even looking our way or even acknowledging our presence. The two shots I managed were head shots. But, oh what an experience!!!! And one I will never forget!