Watch Out for a Bear With Cubs! My Collage for LMAC #151

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When I saw @shaka's template photo this week, my mind conjured experiences I'd had long ago. Readers of my blog will notice this is a habit of mine. But art is personal,so I follow that thought stream.

The Template Photo by @shaka for LMAC #151
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The mountain path in the template could have been one on which I walked many times, as a child. Some years ago I tried to recreate the scene as I remembered it: sinister and beautiful, the way untamed nature can be.

My Memory of That Place
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When I first started on the collage this week I made a still picture. You can see by comparing the still (below)to the picture (above) that the memory I approximate in each case is consistent. Is it real? I don't know. Maybe my siblings remember that place differently.
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More than anything else I remember the beauty of the place. Also, the quiet, the tranquility. And yet, there was danger: a cliff. And vines that we swung on. When I swung on those vines I was no bigger than the child in my collage.

How to express the danger in my LMAC picture? A bear would do it, I thought, and it had to be a menacing bear. Why was the bear menacing? That's where the cubs came in. Protecting the cubs made my bear ferocious.

Are Bears Truly Ferocious?

The answer to that question is, yes! Bears are apex predators. This means that, not only do they prey on other animals, but there are few animals that prey on them. As a matter of fact, the only animal that preys on brown bears is a human. Black bears suffer more predators: humans, mountain lions , wolves , coyotes, bobcats, grizzly bears, and other black bears. The most vulnerable of black bears, of course, are the cubs.

Let's look at the Kodiak bear, which, according to the Alaska.gov website, is the largest bear in the world. A male can weigh 1,500 pounds and stand 10' tall. This spectacular animal has been isolated from other bears for 12,000 years on the Kodiak Archipelago.

Kodiak Brown Bear, Alaska
kodiak bear Yathin S Krishnappa 3.0.png
Credit: Yathin S. Krishnappa. CC 3.0 license

If that is a Kodiak in my collage, it will likely have two or three cubs.. Kodiak mothers are devoted to their offspring. Their cubs stay with them for three years. Despite this doting parent, 25% of the cubs will not make it through their third year. A major threat to the cubs' survival is male cannibalism.

Kodiak Bear and Cubs
Kodiak bear and cub us fish and wildlife public.png
U.S. Fish and Wildlife. Public domain.

The female Kodiak is about 30% lighter than the male. While she may have as many as four cubs of her own, it is not uncommon for her to adopt cubs from other litters.

Kodiak Bear Cubs Playing
Kodiak Bear cubs playing, USFWS  Hillebrand, Steve public.png
Credit: Steve Hillebrand from U.S. Fish and Wildlife. Public domain..

Is the Kodiak ferocious? While a grizzly has been described as being among the most lethal animals in the wild, Kodiaks are not as aggressive. Over the last 75 years, only one human life has been lost because of a Kodiak attack (although there have been injuries). Grizzlies, on the other hand, killed 24 people in just 15 years (2000 to 2015). Grizzlies hunt large mammals. Kodiaks eat mostly plants, including, berries, and even grass.

However, a Kodiak bear can be aggressive when cubs are present or if the bear is surprised. The website Wild Explained suggests, "Don’t approach them, don’t try to feed them, and you’ll live to tell the tale".

Grizzly Bear, Yellowstone National Park, USA
Grizzly_bear_near_Obsidian_Creek_credit yellowston national prk 2.0.png
Credit: Yellowstone National Park: CC 2.0 license

I'm pretty sure the bear in my collage is a Kodiak. She just wants to lead her cubs through the forest without getting hurt :)

My Collage

As is always the case when I create a collage for LMAC, I dipped into resources at the LMAC Image Library, LIL.

I also borrowed from public domain sources:

  • From PXfuels I borrowed the cliff
  • From Johnpauling on Pixabay I borrowed the child.

You can see that I used GIMP paint application to add plants and greenery in the forest. I also enhanced the color on some of the figures to make them stand out. And I tried to insert a stream. I really like streams :)

Here are a few of the many, many steps (and missteps) on the way to my finished collage

shaka 151 progress.jpg

Here's a gif I discarded:
shaka 151 gif.gif

Here's one still version I ran through a lunapic filter. It was too fuzzy so I didn't use it.

shaka 151 lunapic.png

LIL and the LMAC Collage Contest
Everyone on Hive is invited to join in the fun of making a collage. I've been doing it almost since the first week. There are prizes, but I don't compete. Making a collage is fun and a creative experience. Round 151 has concluded and you can view the amazing winning collages here. Tomorrow we begin a new round. Check out the new template photo when it is published on the LMAC community blog.

LIL, the LMAC Image Gallery, is an outgrowth of collage creation. Anyone on Hive may contribute to the library and everyone on Hive may borrow. Procedures are outlined here.

I hope you enjoyed my brief introduction to the Kodiak bear. This is about as close as I want to get to one! I wish all my readers a peaceful day.

Thank you for reading my blog

Hive on!

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A wonderful collage A.G. conjured from memories of your childhood. Love the animation as the bear approaches.

Bear were a common sight in my childhood. I remember one time picking berries, with my grandmother and another cousin, in New Brunswick when we saw a lone black bear across the berry patch.

Grandmother said, “We won’t bother him and he won’t bother us.”

Then we quickly headed for home. She always warned us not to ever get between Mama bear and her cub. There were a lot of bears around but they never seemed to bother anyone.

There are no bears here on P.E.I. but New Brunswick has hundreds of black bears.

You saw bears! Wow. I never saw one up close. I picked a lot of berries but never saw a bear :)

We won’t bother him and he won’t bother us

Your grandmother sounds like a treasure.

Thanks for stopping by and for enjoying my rather unsophisticated animation. It was fun to make.

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Hello friend, I hope you are well, as always an excellent collage, where he describes what the different breeds of bears are like, he says that he is a great predator, but I think that the most dangerous is the man who kills these bears and others through hunting species of animals, I imagine when the bear is on the prowl, it feels in danger and attacks humans to defend its territory.

Hello my friend @cetb2008. I am well and I hope the same is true for your family. I am certain man kills many bears than bears kill men.

We have to respect their size, their strength and their place in nature. But still, I am afraid of bear encounters :))

Thanks so much for your visit. You must be getting ready for the holiday. Your children make it so much more fun.

Take care of yourself,dear @cetb2008

Hello agmoore

Very nice your collage the two precious gifs, yes it looks like the drawing of the memory.

If bears rarely attack there is no problem to walk those trails.

Hello @innfauno12,

Congratulations on your win this week. It is certainly deserved :)

Memory is funny, isn't it? Sometimes you feel like you can just sink into it, if you let yourself.

Thanks for reading and for your kind words.

Moving the bear and its cubs in a photograph is an interesting detail.

Thanks! This was fun to make. I'm glad you found it interesting☀️

Great collage that captures the different aspects of the story and scientific narrative.

Bears are cool until they're not. Attacks occur every year in this province. My biggest fear when I'm out and about hiking is bears and cougars. Cougars stalk so that's even worse cause you won't see him coming until he's on top of you with his maw around your neck. So you better hope he's just in a playful mood and not hungry. All this talk of wild-life has triggered my deep-rooted evolutionary fears. Happy now @agmoore? 🐅🐻 😄

All this talk of wild-life has triggered my deep-rooted evolutionary fears

I don't think they are very deeply rooted in me. Closer to the surface. The great thing about being a child and going on those forest hikes was I had no idea about spiders, ticks, snakes or bears. Today I could never walk through high grass or dense brush with such innocent abandon.

Cougars stalk so that's even worse cause you won't see him coming until he's on top of you with his maw around your neck.

OMG! And yet you go. The call of the wild.

Thanks so much for your comment, @litguru

The great thing about being a child and going on those forest hikes was I had no idea about spiders, ticks, snakes or bears.

The world was new and magical. Now and then we can re-experience that innocence and wonder, but alas those moments are far and few between... unless you have good dealer 😆

Wow! How do you know so much about bears? How come I had no idea that Kodiak bears were the largest? I always thoughtgrizzliesy or polar bears are the largest ones. Anyway, thanks for a beautiful post. It was worth reading your post.

!LUV

Every time I write a blog, I try to learn something. I always write about what I don't know. That makes it more interesting for me, and I think the reader.

Thanks so much for reading and for your kind comment.

The collage ended really great haha i loved that you made it like a gif, the bears really makes feel the child in danger

Thanks a lot, @malos10. Life doesn't always have happy endings, but my collages can.

I appreciate the visit and the comment.

It is a successful idea to make such animated additions to photographs. Congratulations

Thank you so much. I'm not much of an artist but I do like to write and I love to create collages.

I appreciate your comment

Preved Medved :P

and a !BEER 🍻

😆

I just looked that up

Thanks for the beer and the visit😄

my pleasure! you have diversified my feed in a great and funny way 🤩

Hey @agmoore, what a great collage to use and show the ferocity of a mother looking out for her cubs.

For some reasons I do like the lunapic filter's effect on some parts of the collage. Like the tree and ground..
It gives it a snowy kind of look that goes with the winter season...

Although it's just my view 😂😂, I still love your spring choice ❤️

Thank you for visiting @seki1. I know you are busy with studies.
Yes, Mama is looking out for her cubs. I didn't want her to be ferocious without cause :)

I liked the Lunapic,too. When I can't make up my mind, I put several up and let the readers decide.

Hope you're not drowning in work 😇

Just managing to stay afloat @agmoore 😂😂
Thanks for the concern 😊

the post-work photos look like they're in Minecraft

Is that good or bad? I use Paint, Paint 3d and Gimp. I have crude photo editing skills 😄 but it's still a lot of fun.

I think it could be much better with a little more experimentation. Thanks for your effort

😂

Looking for yours in round #152

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Hi @agmoore.
I can't remember if I've said before - you really have a knack for making such beautiful animations. Done with so much passion for details. 👍🙂
Awesome the way the protagonists react to each other. Great work!

And once again, your LMAC post not only has beautiful animations we can enjoy, it was also super informative as usual.

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Since a few years, it is said that there are bears in Germany from time to time again, too. To be honest, I am not yet prepared for such an encounter. It's still too nice there, at the top of the food chain.

Warm greetings :-) 👋

It really means a lot when I meet your standards. You are the top of the scale when it comes to collage perfection. I stay in my lane and do what I can. Have fun. Try hard. Try to express an idea and have the finished result be aesthetically acceptable. Telling a story comes naturally to me.

Thanks for your comment. Makes my day.

:-) Thank you very much for the laurels. However, I want to assure you that I do not have any standards.
I just totally love your animations. They are so passionately done.