Bears are very short-tempered, which explains most of their dangerousness. It is largely a matter of individuality, however. One bear will ignore a thing that will make another fighting mad, and on another day their dispositions may be found quite reversed.
What they lack in eyesight, they more than make up in hearing and sense of smell. I know of one fully authenticated instance where a bear smelled carrion twenty-five miles away and headed directly for it.
Pair of Small Cubs Discovering That the Trunk of a Dead Tree Is Not a Safe Refuge, and a Mother Bear. with a Rather Large Family, Snapped in an Unconscious Moment in the Woods
In the hunt to photograph wild game, you are likely to run into new experience.. Your wits must always be working. One afternoon I was dead tired. I had scaled a high cliff and photographed a nest of baby eagles. Then I sat down to rest. I must have dozed. Suddenly I awoke, for no reason at all—just instinct. Not ten feet away was the largest brown bear I had ever seen. Bears were new to me then and I was scared stiff. The bear stood directly in front of me, waving his immense head from side to side. I never batted an eyelash; I couldn't. At last he moved away, went wearily over and sat
