I [24 f] was walking with my dog down our mile long driveway to get the mail last night. (I don't live in this house full time. Only a couple weekends a month). I knew it was bear season but we haven't seen a bear on the property in years because they smell my hound dog marking all over the property. Apparently this bear didn't care about the dog smell because as I was coming up over the hill back to the house a (I think female but very large) black bear walked around the side of the house and started staring at me and the dog. Luckily my dog has good recall and when I told him to "leave it" he ignored the bear but the bear started walking towards us. I tried to make myself as big as possible while holding on to my dog and I yelled "HEY BEAR!" over and over but it just seemed to get more curious. I maintained eye contact and walked backwards while continuing to yell all the way to the campground next door. I tossed my dog onto the porch of one of the cabins and started ringing a very large bell that they have. That seemed to scare it off. I've never had a bear not immediately run when it sees me and my dog. This one wanted to say "hi" no matter what! If you are wondering why I didn't have bear spray, that's because I'm an idiot :) other than not having bear spray, what could I have done better? I feel like it's odd that the bear didn't run but also didn't seem aggressive towards us in any way! Sadly I have no pictures and the house cameras didn't catch it.

I finish my Ranger position in September does anyone know any internships with a focused on working with Ursinae starting shortly after? I’m willing to travel anywhere but I’m currently in Idaho.

spotted on our jobsite in western canada, not an area that usually has grizzlies but it gave me the heebie jeebies in a way that black bears don’t. didn’t spook easily.

This was last week in Jasper, AB. Wife and I were riding trail #13 into Jasper very near town. We were speaking loudly, riding close together, and going slower than we would normally to be "bear aware". I had bear spray on my hip. We came down a small hill and around a corner and ran into this fella.

First, I understand that pulling out my phone was a total bonehead move. I would not make that error again. We must have done enough "right" to live to talk about it. But I feel we definitely made some mistakes.

• As loud as we were I am sure the bear knew we were there, however he didn't really ever look at us until we starting our retreat.
• To us it looked as if he was rooting around pulling up grass while swinging his head side to side, mostly ignoring us.
• We stopped, as we had read that while riding a bike it was the best move so as not to trigger a prey response.
• After we stopped and observed the bear we did not address it, but were not using hushed tones when speaking to each other.
• We stopped for maybe 20 seconds, during that time the bear seemed to "notice" us more.

Mistakes:

• Pulling out my phone.
• We should have completely dismounted our bikes and put them between the bear and ourselves.
• I should have made ready my bear spray.
• I should have slowly walked away while facing the bear rather than very slowly riding away essentially with our backs turned.

This is a photo I snapped over my shoulder as we were riding away from the bear.

Questions for folks that know bear activity:

• What should have we done better?
• Should have we reported this encounter?
• Was the bear showing agitation in the video with the head swaying?
• How common is an encounter like this one?

https://preview.redd.it/qozz356ryy8d1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3294306e3189eeefa1526ab7fb6807866e7465f4

https://preview.redd.it/9y9hc0rpyy8d1.png?width=1170&format=png&auto=webp&s=8aabe61375b8bdc692d292f1aad5190420ae7e3f

Camping in RMNP and went to look for sticks for the fire, found this about 15 feet away from our site

Adorable baby bear outside out window with mama nearby 🥰🥰

Ski Mtn Rd, Gatlinburg