See the above bear dot. It is Circus Bear. He decided to take a swim in Yellowstone Lake yesterday. I wanted to show you this photo to give you an idea of a bear swimming in a big lake. The following photo is what he looked like through a telephoto. I’ve seen bears swim rivers before but I am pretty sure this is the first time I’ve seen one swim in a lake. And he swam a long way!
I don’t know who this bear is but it could be the Hayden Valley Sow’s 4 year old male cub. He was up on a hill just north of Sulfur Cauldron. He spent some time sleeping and some time eating grass and dandelions and a lot of time scratching. I don’t believe I have ever seen a bear scratch as many parts of his body as this guy. It was really cute.
Once he finished all of his scratching he walked right across the road, went down into the trees and disappeared.
Thanks for the giggles! Love these images.
Oh my I just die a little more each day when I see these great photographs that we are missing 🙂
Do you want me to just tell them “stay” until you can get here? They usually don’t listen but it is worth a try.
Love the swimming bear story 🙂
Ilse
I felt very lucky to be able to see that Ilse. A friend of mine who was watching the bear from above while it was swimming close to shore said “Look you can see it’s paws.” At first I was thinking well yes of course you can see his paws, but then I looked. It was really near to watch his paws work as he swam. He did that for at least 20 minutes and he wasn’t even out of breath when he got out.