Bears weren’t the only mammals around last week………………..
Category: Mammals
East Hokkaido September Trip #4
Some more mushy bear photos from last week………………..
East Hokkaido September Trip #3
Some more Brown Bear pics from last week, probably way over-sharpened……………..
I need a full-frame camera that can handle high ISOs I think. Now just have to think how I can afford it…………….
East Hokkaido September Trip #1
We spent a a few days in east Hokkaido last week……………….
In Shiretoko, we saw several Brown Bears fishing in the rivers. I only seemed to see them in shady places in the early morning or late afternoon when the light was not so good. The 7DM2 is an old camera now and was never good at high ISOs.
A change of lens
I took off the 500 f4 and borrowed my wife’s ancient 70-200 f2.8 lens for the Brown Bear yesterday.
It was about 20 meters away from the car. It appeared very calm and eventually disappeared into the forest.
A Bear Portrait
A very close encounter with Brown Bear from yesterday.
500mm f4 makes a good portrait lens in these circumstances!
I don’t want to say too much about this individual because if local officials know where it is they can get a little overzealous and the poor bear might get shot.
June begins
The Fox cubs were still around and still cute but it’s gotten pretty warm the last couple of days and there were lots of mosquitoes around (you can see one on the nose of one of the cubs above): I think that may be the last time in Onuma for me for a while.
Last of the foxes
The fox family was still around yesterday. That was probably the last time I’ll see them……….
More fox cubs
Admit it: they’re cute.
Baby Foxes
There was a family of 6 fox cubs at Onuma the last week…………..
Bears
Although my recent trip to east Hokkaido was pretty quiet birdwise I did get excellent views of Brown Bear. A mother and her 2 cubs were feeding right next to the road.
These photos were taken from the car. The bears caused a small traffic jam and a couple of park officials armed with bear spray were nervously looking on and telling people to stay in their cars.
After a few minutes the bears walked down the road a bit and disappeared back into the forest.
Brown Bears also occur in the Hakodate area (I’ve seen them a couple of times and often see tracks/scat) but sadly are often shot if they come near towns or villages.
*EDITED TO ADD* Apparently this is becoming a common occurence in Shiretoko and the officials are getting a bit worried about people getting too close and the bears becoming too accustomized to people/cars which may present problems in the future. This exact same sighting (and several others) was featured on a local news program showing the potential dangers of such encounters . The broadcast went on to show subsequent incidents with even larger traffic jams and people getting out of cars very close to bears.
In hindsight maybe we should have just driven past and not joined the line of cars. I don’t really know what should be done, I mean it’s pretty exciting to see a bear so close and a massive part of the attraction of Shiretoko is the fact there are bears there. Perhaps they should enforce a strict no stopping rule on parts of the road where bears are known to feed?
East Hokkaido 2019 #8
Not all the birds make it……………..