Scarface

Large boar, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

Lots of people comment about my personal safety or ask about my level of fear when I’m on these bear trips. But, after sitting in a two hour traffic delay on the Seward Highway thanks to a fatality accident, and then reading about more murders in Anchorage only confirms what I often say, and that is statistically, driving that highway, or hanging around humans in the wrong part of town is more dangerous then being around the bears we are photographing. Unfortunately there are exceptions, but I believe the habituated bears with a consistent natural food source that are found in this area are far safer then then the ones I find around my home, or in other parts of the state where food sources are hard to find such as in Denali.

However, no matter how comfortable I am with sows and cubs on the coast – these huge, scarred up, mean looking boars that are usually only around during the breeding season still make me just a bit uncomfortable.