Kamchatka brown bear giving me side eye – There are so, so many aspects of my time in Kamchatka that I love and one of them must surely be the opportunity to look up at bears. It’s definitely a distinct feeling, having one of these loping lowly toward me and then, as I lie prone on the ground, give me a cursory glance, a kind of ‘hey, what you doing down there?’ With the rivers and lakes teeming with salmon when I am there with my groups the bears are all very well fed, very relaxed, and very unbothered by the presence of our small photographic groups. We are there simply to observe, quietly, respectfully and from a fixed location. If the bears choose to wander over to where we are then this is their choice, their right, and as long as we all remain calm and quiet then so will the bears. Though it is not something that I have ever seen in Kamchatka I know that in Alaska, mums with cubs, especially in places where they are familiar with human visitors, will often bring the cubs closer to people, feeling that they are safe and protected from the more dangerous, but more wary solitary males. In Kamchatka we did have one moment when a large male suddenly came running over, past where we were and toward a mum with cubs. The cubs did exactly what they should do and bolted up a tree, the mum also then followed a familiar route, developing an immediate and unbridled ferocity that I have never seen before nor since. No one, no bear, no nothing was getting close to her precious cubs and if that meant putting herself in danger to protect them then so be it. But if she was going down she was going down fighting. As it happened the large male saw sense and decided that being shredded that day wasn’t on his to-do list and he was last seen, tail down and being pursued at speed into the undergrowth by an incandescent female. Even on her return however you could see the anxiety etched onto her face, standing tall she remained vigilant for some time before beckoning the cubs to return. Just another day in the wilds of Kamchatka.
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