Part Two ~ Continued Part Two ~ after the cub took off down thru the ferns and grass of the Magical Forest the mom bear got up and ambled off after it only to lay down almost in front of me. She looked exhausted, she drooped her head, and as I looked, I could see that she had a wound on her left side. She panted a lot as if she had been running or sick? I felt really bad for her so I decided not to hang around too long. After taking a few of the photos you see here, I backed away heading back up trail toward Loop Rd. When I turned around there was no one around! The crowd had left me. I like being alone in the woods… So I stopped turned back around to watch the mother bear trail after her very active adolescent child who just could not be still. I moved down the trail toward the back of the “Magical Forest” (my nick name for this area) staying a safe distance from the two bears. To my surprise the mother bear stood up on her hind legs and began to attack the post on the corner of the barn. She pawed it, she bit it she banged her head on it. I thought to myself “Its time for you to get out of here!” It appeared at first that she was showing me signs of displaced aggression, instead of charging me she was using the post to show me what she could do! At this point now, I am at the maximum distance a 200 mm lens can go, so you can tell by that, that I am a long ways off from this bear and her cub by now. Just as I thought its time to go, she quit. So I stayed, what she did next was so fun to watch. I took photos so you can see what I am talking about but they are not quality pictures, and I am not happy that I could not get better shots so sorry for the blurred photos. She turns around after all the biting and scratching, and begins to rub her back on the post. She looked as if it was the most enjoyable feeling she had, had all day. Looking around I still see that I am the only one left in the forest. Hmmmm maybe it is time to leave, but I couldn’t, I was drawn to standing there watching these bears. Oh wait where is that cub! Looking off to my right I see the cub chasing something through the tall grass, pretending that it was some foe it was after, hair raised and swatting at yet another butterfly. I am thinking, I would love to get that photo, but it would be too dangerous so I stayed and watched as the mother bear started off after her cub who appeared to now be in character of some imaginary event. And this is the point in this story that makes all these fuzzy photos worth keeping because no one would believe me if I told you that I met a bear in the “Magical Forest” who used mother nature to self medicate her wounds! The mother bear is off in the distance now walking through the tall grass following her cub when she stops gets up on her hind legs pulls down a young pine sapling, and I am thinking, here we go again more displaced aggression, as she pulls the pine limb down and starts biting it. Ok for sure I need to go right? I mean that’s the logical thing to do! . But I am still a long way, away, in fact the only real way I can watch what is happening is through the fully extended 200mm lens. So I put the camera to my eye and watch. I take a few shots but just can’t get it in focus, so you will have to view these awful blurred photos for evidence only, not for the photography! As I watched I come to the realization that this is not displaced aggression, but this bear is actually putting pine sap on her wounds. I could not believe it, she was literally taking the place where she bit into the pine tree and rubbing the sap from that bite in the tree into her cuts on her head. I was amazed and stood there in unbelief of what I had just taken a photo of, the cub wondered off into the meadow and the mom followed it, right into the black berry’s and off to where ever bears go after they have had their daily massage and received their herbal treatments for the day. But what was that sound I am hearing… Looking back no one is in the woods, where is that voice coming from “Get Out Of The Woods” “Get Out Of The Woods” what someone is yelling on a megaphone for everyone to get out of the woods, Turns out there was a ranger on the other end of that megaphone who was quite upset that so many people had stopped their cars, I am thinking now what could it be? If all these people left me when there was a bear right here in front of me what is up… Sure enough there was another bear entering into the Magical Forest. We returned to the Magical Forest two days later ( I wanted photos of that barn post) and are greeted with one of the 2nd best Cades Cove events in all of our trips to Cades Cove. A mother deer and her little fawn entered the forest and intersected the trail right in front of us. We stopped, the mother deer seemed indifferent to our being there. My youngest daughter was at that time around 8 years old, and as we stopped the little fawn came up to my daughter stretched its trembling body out as long as it could to touch her trembling finger that was stretched out as far as she could stretch it. A wet cold nose of a baby fawn is got to be an awesome experience for a young kid, but it must have been a great experience for the little fawn, because it started running in circles around us, jumping and kicking its legs out, darting in to stop and touch her finger and then run around again. This went on till the mother deer decided it was time to go, gave a certain signal of some kind the little fellow ran over to its mom and you could tell it wanted to go back to my daughter one more time. It started but the mothers commands must be obeyed so it turned back and followed the mother out of the forest. I wrote above that the fawn event was the 2nd best Cades Cove Event in all our trips, but there is yet another bear story to tell, an even greater adventure, and bear encounter none of us will ever forget. But I will save that story for later.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 19:57:39 +0000
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