Black Bear On Skyline Drive Shenandoah National Park Virginia 7-25-2010

Click on these pictures to enlarge them. Photos by Rachel.



We went back to Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park yesterday and saw this black bear as we were leaving the park. It was out by the road. A man walking nearby signaled for us to stop and look. Another car came and we signaled for them to stop. The bear looked to be an adolescent. It had long legs and big ears. It turned around to walk off. It had very large testicles as big as baseballs.

We had just listened to a Park Ranger at Skyland give a very informative talk about Black Bears. 70 years ago when the park was created there were no black bears in that area and very few deer. The trees had been cut for farming but once the park was created the trees grew back over the years since the 1930s and the bears and deer have returned and are now very numerous.