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paul hobson wildlife photography |
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Black Bears, Vancouver Island |
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| Black bears are the only resident bears on Vancouver Island and are generally much less potentially aggressive than their larger cousins the grizzlies. The best bear watching is from the lovely town of Toffino on the west coast and is carried out from a boat, usually a Zodiac. Because of this I had to handhold the camera and lens and used either the 500 or 300 lens with my EOS ID mk11. The weather when I went was very dull so a judicial use of the ISO settings was needed to get sufficient speed to handhold the lens, though the IS function certainly helped. The best time to view the bears is at low tide when they descend from the forest to work the low shore for crabs to feed on, though on one occasion the bear was nibbling away at a set of bones, possibly from a sea lion. The boat drifts up slowly and a good boat operator will get you close without disturbing the bears. The most exciting time I had was when a mother and cubs walked down to the beach, I never got a good shot with all 3 cubs but I was pleased with the one above with one cub and mother looking towards the boat. | |||
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