Wildlife Photography

When a brown bear is really a black bear?

A cinnamon colored black bear on a ranch near Garland, Montana.

A few weeks ago I was a guest on the Coffee Ranch near Garland, Montana. One of its owners, Bill Coffee, showed me around his ranch and of course I had my trusty camera in tow. He was telling me the story of bear on the property. He said he thought it was a black bear, though it was brown. Knowing exactly what breed it is would be important information, especially given the fact that brown bears (or grizzly bears) are much more dangerous than black bears.

An hour or two later while driving across his "back 40" Bill asked me, "Is that a bear over there?" It was far away and at first glance I thought it was a tree stump. I pulled out my 400mm lens. My telephoto lens could barely reach the bear, but I was using a 50 megapixel camera so I could zoom in when I got home. And sure enough...it was a damn brown colored bear.

I've been making photos of Montana long time and I have yet to lay eyes on a brown bear. This was my first  But was it really a brown bear? I mean, it was colored brown, but its features were much more like those of a black bear. What's the story?

I remember hearing the story of a hunter who hired an aboriginal guide in the Northwest Territory of Canada to go hunting for polar bears. The guide spotted a bear, told the man to shoot, and he did. And he bagged a bear. But under closer inspection it was not a polar bear. While it shared some of the features of a polar bear, it has patched of brown hair. It was later determined that it was the offspring of a brown bear and a polar bear...never before seen.

That story made me wonder if a black bear and a brown bear could breed. So I did a little research. In 1859 a black bear and European brown bear were bred together in the London Zoological Gardens. Called "ursid hybrids," three offspring did not reach maturity. There does not appear to be an example of an American brown bear or black bear ever having successful mated. So that possibility seems far fetched.

That said, I did learn that in addition to black (of course) black bears can be blue-black, dark brown, brown, cinnamon and even white. Given how far Garland, Montana in Custer County is to any known brown bear or grizzly bears I assume what I photographed was in fact a black bear. If not, it would be quite a story.

Montana wildlife photo ops are everywhere

Two pronghorn antelope does and a buck pose in the middle of a field on the plains near Rudyard, Montana. → Buy a Print

For those not from Montana it might be hard to understand exactly how much wildlife really exists in the state. While working as a wildlife photographer is not my primary niche, I do photograph wildlife when it presents itself. Such was the case this past Saturday.

A wild desert cottontail rabbit that followed me around the streets of Rudyard, Montana. → Buy a Print

My goal on Saturday was to make photos of farmers as they seeded wheat near Rudyard, Montana. In doing so I came across several herds of pronghorn antelope, flocks of Canadian geese flying south, small groups of white-tailed deer, dozens of ground squirrels, two rabbits, a covey of Hungarian partridges, and one coyote. And that was while driving down the rural roads of Montana. Had I actually been trying to find wildlife I am sure I would have encountered even more.

Wildlife in Montana is everywhere. And chances to engage in wildlife photography in Montana is also equally ubiquitous. Here are just a few photos I took on Saturday. Neither are particularly popular animals in Montana, but I enjoy seeing them and photographing them nonetheless. Hopefully you enjoy my wildlife photos just as much.

Herding Montana buffalo

This is a video I helped shoot on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation late last fall. We attached a video camera to an all terrain vehicle as members of the Fort Belknap Fish & Game Department rounded up buffalo, just as they do every fall. It is an exciting glimpse into what it is like to be so close to these large, fast, wild mammals that once thrived here on the northern plains.

Herding buffalo (bison) on the Fort Belknap Reservation in northern Montana. The buffalo are herded every fall so they can be counted, given medicine, and a some removed from the herd for consumption. Compared to buffalo at Yellowstone National Park, which have become somewhat acclimated to humans, the buffalo at Fort Belknap are about as wild as they would have been years ago before Europeans settled America.

Winter Playground

A large herd of pronghorn antelope run across a snowy field near just within the city limits of Havre, Montana. → Buy This Print

Shortly after arriving in Montana I learned that many of the locals did not share the same affinity I had for the large herds of antelope that roamed the Montana countryside. Many Montanans, in fact, loathe them. I guess since I come from a state without antelope (or more aptly called, pronghorn) I had less reason not to like them.

I think one of the biggest reason locals don't like them is because they aren't as good tasting as elk, moose, or even deer. They also cause a lot of car accidents. Nonetheless, I love seeing herds moving across the open plains, like the ones I photographed below just outside of Havre, Montana. They are the one bit of wildlife here that truly makes it seem like I'm on the African Serengeti at times.