A bear's skeleton - WetCanvas: Online Living for Artists

This topic has 16 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 11 months ago by Captain G.

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May 2, 2013 at 5:00 pm #990877
Gribbey
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I found this yesterday and went back today with my camera and I’m very freaking excited about it. I must have bear clan genes. It is in one of the places where I frequently paint and last fall I saw scat I was fairly sure was from a bear. I do carry bear spray, but my goodness, I am glad I didn’t come face to face with her, (probably her not him because of the size). If anybody has bear stories, please post them. The thrill of plein air, eh?

This looks like a saw cut to me. No feet or claws that I could see. I came across the skull several hundred feet away in the woods and unfortunately didn’t remark on the area any more than to say by the big rock by the tipped over tree. Too bad I couldn’t find it again today.

Lower jaw.

May flowers and here is a link to bear anatomy;
http://www.inberg.ca/hunting_essentials/black_bear_anatomy.htm

C&C welcome
"If you go out in the woods today, you're in for a big surprise!" Jimmy Kennedy
May 3, 2013 at 11:55 pm #1187067
00011001
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That’s an interesting find, but I would probably be a bit unnerved had I discovered it. Thankfully for me, no bear issues while painting or otherwise. I wouldn’t be thrilled to find evidence of bear near my painting haunts. I don’t really have to worry, because the bear populations are outside of my region anyway. I would be worried if I went painting in the Adirondacks, I know people who have had close contact with bears while camping and hiking and it does not sound fun. It’s wise of you to go painting prepared with bear spray!
Laila
May 4, 2013 at 9:32 am #1187072
Gribbey
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Hi Laila, I’ve never seen a bear in the wild although often enough signs of them, like claw marks on trees and foraged berry bushes, scat full of seeds. I have lived in a couple of places where I knew there were bears and my dogs would let me know if they were around. The poodle would cower behind me, not so brave. I am nervous about them as black bears are predators but I never want to give up going into the woods for so many reasons. I just want to be smart about it…good luck!
Btw, there is going to be a paint-out about half way between us, in Saranac Lake. Sounds good to me. http://www.saranaclakeartworks.com/pleinair/index.htm
Libbey

C&C welcome
"If you go out in the woods today, you're in for a big surprise!" Jimmy Kennedy
May 4, 2013 at 12:26 pm #1187063
DFGray
Hi
I stood with Brother Grizzley as he grazed then sauntered past us to have a nap(at one point 3 meters away) last year on a painting expedition in our Great Bear Rainforest, painted him the morning from the boat as he was grazing the shore, my first nations Brother Nusi sent me an old talisman Grizzley claw handed down to him, that I wear at events to keep our coast oil free

he is in this pastel

Our Captain Brian Falconer taking a pic of me uworking before breakfast on the Acheiver

the gift

a life changing experience for me and a co starring role in the documentary ‘Reflections’
We do get our local Black Bear thru our yard here on Vancouver Island
regards

regards
Dan
http://dfgray.com/
May 4, 2013 at 4:08 pm #1187073
Gribbey
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Wow, Dan! Thanks for posting. I’d like to personally thank you for participating in such a wonderful project, for producing the art and speaking up against big oil.

For anyone interested, I found the documentary, ‘Reflections’ here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/reflections-art-for-an-oil-free-coast?c=activity Scroll down to see the 22 minute video.

Couldn’t be a better cause, to quote; “The purpose of this documentary is to raise public awareness around the catastrophic impact that Enbridge’s proposed pipeline will have on the British Columbian coastline. Any hope of preserving the Great Bear Rainforest depends upon public resistance to the Enbridge proposal. ” Your project did that for me when I read the related book, ‘Canada’s Raincoast at Risk’ http://www.amazon.ca/Canadas-Raincoast-Risk-Oil-Free-Coast/dp/0968843271 I was really surprised that there is a ‘glass reef’ (silica) off the coast of BC, the only living one in the world, that is more than 9,000 years old, before the last ice age. Also, that in the Great Bear Rain Forest there is plant life that escaped the ice age as well. It just may not escape Harper and Enbridge and the China deal, FIPA. There is a petition and a way to currently contribute to the protest here; https://leadnow.netdonor.net/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1694&ea.campaign.id=19897&ea.tracking.id=donate-single

I was distraught when I first read another book ‘The Sacred Headwaters’, http://www.amazon.ca/The-Sacred-Headwaters-Wade-Davis/dp/1553658809. Then I got online and found that just one month before, in December 2012, the BC government had revoked permission for Royal Shell to make numerous wells at Red Chris, at the headwaters- Protesting can make a difference, thank heavens! I certainly hope that the current efforts to stop the Northern Gateway will have that kind of result as well. For the Bears, for the land, the water and the people. Idle No More!

I really envy you your trip on the Achiever. Your paintings are beautiful and I thank you for caring. Libbey

C&C welcome
"If you go out in the woods today, you're in for a big surprise!" Jimmy Kennedy
May 4, 2013 at 5:16 pm #1187064
DFGray
All good medicine, I had a very spiritual moment on this voyage and Ian ‘Nusi’ Reid and I became brothers along with brother Bear

regards
Dan
http://dfgray.com/
May 4, 2013 at 7:45 pm #1187069
T Porter
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Looks to me like a skeleton from something out of the deer family, either a moose calf or an adult deer.

The picture that you labeled lower jaw looks more like the underside of a skull. Did you fine this part in two pieces? Because it doesn’t look like the pieces match up. Maybe it’s just the angle of the picture, but the top looks like the back of the skull where the neck and spine would connect into the skull and if the piece with all the teeth was rotated 180 degrees the pointy parts at the lower end looks like they would join up with the pointy parts on the lower end of the other piece. Joined together those pieces would form the eye sockets and ear cavities. The teeth in the skull are without a doubt the teeth of an animal from the deer family, three large molars in the back and three smaller molar type teeth in front of those.

The lower jaw is typically found in two halves when there is this much decomposition and in this case predation. There isn’t enough of anything left to hold the two halves together after the muscles and cartilage decomposes and that causes the lower jaw halves to separate.

[FONT=Verdana]Black bear are typically very shy creatures and will avoid human contact if given a chance. Of coarse there are the occasional black bears that have grown use to human encounters or associate humans to free food and have therefore lost a lot of their fear of humans so those are the ones to watch out for, but more often than not you’ll see the backside of a black bear as they boogie to get away from you. Grizzlies are a whole different story they are very unpredictable but you don’t have grizzly in Quebec so no worries.[/FONT]

C & C is welcomed

Tom
May 4, 2013 at 8:35 pm #1187066
ArtSavesLives
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All good medicine, I had a very spiritual moment on this voyage and Ian ‘Nusi’ Reid and I became brothers along with brother Bear

I just watched the video, then shared it with my my artist groups on Facebook. Oh, how wonderful to have such an experience! It brought tears to my eyes, as I moved to the Seattle area 18 years ago from the midwest to be among the mountains, the trees, and the hum of nature . . .

[FONT=Georgia]We live in a rainbow of chaos. ::::Paul Cezanne::::

My blog: http://passionforpigment.blogspot.com/
May 4, 2013 at 10:28 pm #1187065
DFGray
Thanks for watching it is very strange to see myself on this journey on the big screen but it was a great moment in my life that continues, for some of us it is the journey not the destination!!

regards
Dan
http://dfgray.com/
May 5, 2013 at 1:04 am #1187068
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Libbey, I was planning to go to the Saranac Lake paint out, but not as a participant this year. I should probably improve my plein air painting chops before I consider entering. Are you planning to enter?
May 5, 2013 at 8:06 am #1187078
DaveCrow
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Saranac is beautiful country, don’t worry about your PA chops, just come enjoy.

I was out yesterday on the river discovering just how much sharpening my PA chops need…

"Let the paint be paint" --John Marin
May 5, 2013 at 8:47 am #1187074
Gribbey
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Hi TPorter- You have me thinking about the jaw not completely for the reasons you suggest. Here is what it looked like when I found it. It came apart, the jaw in two pieces and the back where as you say the neck would connect to the skull, in a third piece.

I didn’t turn it over because I thought it would fall apart more. The skull that I found the first day was semi buried in moss and leaves and when I turned the single piece over I was stunned because I have never seen anything like it, broad and quite flat, it was the size of my hand with my fingers splayed, splintered toward the nose with the top of the eye sockets dropping off perpendicular. I don’t remember teeth for sure, so could the top of the skull been separated or cut off somehow? I will have to go back for another look.

Of three skeletons you mention- the long bones of the legs were no where to be found so they may have been carried off. Likewise feet of the bear if that was the case. I have the tail and hip piece turned around backwards in the photo and the shorter part of the spine that is mysteriously halved lengthwise would go between the ribs and hips. Here are comparison diagrams.

I am still guessing bear though, you? Also, there are two bones in one section, like human ulna and radius- that’s the give away.

I like this image – “you’ll see the backside of a black bear as they boogie to get away from you”. Good.

This is what I read somewhere- a grizzly will stand up on its hind legs and roar and it is being defensive so stand still and be quiet. A black bear will stalk a person and attack, stand up wave your arms and shout, or sing Oh Canada.

C&C welcome
"If you go out in the woods today, you're in for a big surprise!" Jimmy Kennedy
May 5, 2013 at 8:57 am #1187075
Gribbey
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Laila and Dave, My chops need constant sharpening, but I want to go anyway!
ArtSaves, Great idea to share on facebook.
Dan, cheers! literally

C&C welcome
"If you go out in the woods today, you're in for a big surprise!" Jimmy Kennedy
May 5, 2013 at 11:27 am #1187070
T Porter
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Hi TPorter-
[IMG]http://s3.amazonaws.com/wetcanvas-hdc/Community/images/05-May-2013/970132-IMG_3835.jpg[/IMG]

I am positive that this is a deer skull. What you have pictured is not the jaw it is the skull.

C & C is welcomed

Tom
May 5, 2013 at 11:31 am #1187076
Gribbey
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T.Porter, Okay, I could be wrong. I’ll get back to you. Libbey

C&C welcome
"If you go out in the woods today, you're in for a big surprise!" Jimmy Kennedy
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