Wildlife Photographer Captures Intense Moment a Grizzly Bear Shows His Dominance
When it comes to careers, becoming a wildlife photographer sounds like signing up for something artistic and fun with a little bit of travel involved, right? Well--not quite! Though many photographers do get creative with their techniques and photo editing, a lot of the job is learning about animals to find the best way to photograph them.
Knowledge and awareness are essential when photographing wild animals, because just about anything can happen. Just take it from Alaska photographer and videographer Kris Luckenbach, who recently had a memorable encounter with a grizzly bear in Katmai National Park and Preserve.
While filming a large male bear, the animal noticed another wild brown bear and put on his best cowboy impression to show his dominance. No really--a bear's walk to display dominance is called a cowboy walk, and it's a very accurate description.
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OMG! This confident bear has some serious swagger. If I didn't know better, though, I might've thought this bear was injured based on the bow-legged way he's walking. Several commenters certainly thought he was hurt, but as @krisluckphoto explains, this is completely normal.
He clarified in the comments, "this is not an injured bear. This is actually a very healthy male that was hanging around us for a while. Another big bear showed up in the area so this bear decided to do his best alpha male showcase, and we call it a Cowboy Walk." How cool!
If you look closely, there's another obvious sign of asserting dominance that many animal species take part in. Yep--he's quite literally marking his territory! Katmai National Park and Preserve (host of the annual Fat Bear Week contest) is a well-known gathering point for brown bears, so it's no surprise that there are many other male bears in the area. Soon, though, they'll all be hibernating for the winter!
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