Brown Bear Sitings in Londonderry!

The story is all-too-familiar these days: between the human population expanding into animal habitats, and the cold winter months driving the animals farther afield in search of food, humans and animals are increasingly crossing paths—sometimes with frightening results on both sides. Fortunately, this bear encounter ended well, but the experience has taught us to be cautious.

Here, we see the bear in a secure holding facility after it was captured. Once it's alert enough to take care of itself, it will be released back into the wild. For now, we're going to hold onto it.

The bear looks harmless enough when enclosed like that, but take a look at this shot from before the creature was subdued. Heidi snapped this photo just moments before the bear was upon her. Hair-raising! How wildlife photographers have the nerve to get these shots is beyond me.

This one shows the bear as the tranquilizers are setting in. It's still dangerous enough that the crew hasn't tried to contain it, but it's much more subdued.

Fortunately for all of us, this was a very happy bear. We feel lucky to have encountered this one.