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The Bear of Przemyśl

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The Bear of Przemyśl and St. Ursula
 
In the southeastern corner of Poland, the city of Przemyśl carries its story in symbols: a brown bear, steady and unhurried, walks beneath a golden cross on the city’s coat of arms. Here, faith and wildness share the same shield. Stories cling to Przemyśl like morning mist. Some say a wild bear once led the city’s founder through the forests, a silent guide from the old world. Others, steeped in Catholic tradition, recall the arrival of German settlers who carried with them a devotion to Saint Ursula. Her name, from the Latin for ‘little female bear,’ echoed in the city’s emblem. The bear and the cross, side by side, became a promise: that faith and the untamed spirit of the land would watch over Przemyśl together.
 
Wojtek the Soldier Bear
 
Przemyśl also honors Wojtek, the famous Syrian brown bear who was officially enlisted as a soldier in the 2nd Polish Corps during World War II. Wojtek traveled through the Middle East and famously helped carry heavy ammunition crates during the Battle of Monte Cassino. A dedicated monument to Wojtek stands proudly next to the Przemyśl Eaglets Monument.
 
Because of the city’s close proximity to the Bieszczady Mountains, Poland’s primary habitat for brown bears, real bears occasionally make headlines. At the start of summer, a wild young male brown bear caused quite a stir when he wandered straight through Przemyśl’s historic Market Square.
 
 

The Mexican Wolf Dawn’s sentinel.

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Since the first campfires flickered against the dark, we have spun tales of the creatures who move through the world beside us. These stories are not just entertainment, but a way to recall our kinship with the wild.

In the old stories of New Mexico’s Pueblo people, the wolf is more than a creature of fur and fang. It stands as the first hunter, a sentinel at the edge of dawn, keeper of the East where the world is born each day anew. The color white marks its domain, a symbol of beginnings and clarity. The Zuni and their kin have long shaped wolves from stone, small guardians to carry in the pocket or place on the altar, believing in their power to heal and to guide the hunter’s hand. In these traditions, the wild is not just remembered but revered, woven into the fabric of daily life as a reminder that harmony with the world is both our inheritance and our responsibility.

Mexican gray wolves use elaborate vocal communication. Their howling is not random; they use unique frequencies and pitches to identify individuals, assemble the pack, and defend territory without engaging in physical conflict.

 

Location: Woodland Park Zoo

Gear: Nikon Z6III + Nikkor Z 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 VR S lens.

The Anthropomorphic Creature

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Mythology: The Anthropomorphic Creature. Because folklore (like Slavic and Native American traditions) emphasized the bear’s human-like qualities—such as its ability to stand upright or its omnivorous diet—early illustrations often gave brown bears eerily human faces, expressions, and postures. They were drawn as “hairy men” or bipedal monsters rather than quadrupeds.

Fact: Brown Bears, although classified as carnivores, are mostly vegetarian; about 80% of a brown bear’s diet actually comes from plants, berries, roots, and nuts.

National Park Service makes decision to kill a wolf on Isle Royale

In my youth, I spent a good deal of time on Isle Royale. Growing up in Michigan, it had a mythical status. The island is a genuine wilderness. Remote and challenging to get to, with no electricity. Now add in that wolves had crossed a frozen Lake Superior in search of moose and established themselves, making this seem like the wilderness experience I was longing for. If I were going to start backpacking, this would be the place—the test. I found myself planning trips rather than concentrating on courses at Rutgers.
With more than 50 wolves on the island at the time, it would seem that one might have a good chance of seeing a wolf. This was not the case. I did track a moose and calf that a wolf was tracking, but that’s about as close as I got, as wolf sightings were scarce at the time. Wild wolves are elusive creatures.
Cut to yesterday’s news, a wolf on Isle Royale was killed because of its “escalating boldness” around people. One of two is reported to be snatching human food and backpacks. Wolves are wily creatures.
This is an alarming turn of events, a first, and given my experience backpacking on the island, it’s surprising. Isle Royale ranks as one of the least-visited National Parks, with about 25k visitors a year. But it is small, and with decades of human and wolf proximity, perhaps inevitable. Lax food storage rules and possibly human feeding of wolves led us down this path. We have strict backcountry rules in bear country, and now similar restrictions have been adopted on Isle Royale.
Natural food sources. Wolves on the island chiefly eat moose. The two are tied together. The population of wolves is currently at 30 and is divided into four packs, and is reportedly stable. The moose population peaked in 2000 and has declined by 60% since 2019. Wolves are turning to adult moose as fewer calves are being born, and researchers at Michigan Tech report that the leading cause of death for adult moose is wolves. Malnutrition had been the leading cause previously, as the wolf population had dwindled to two in 2016-18. This prompted the NPS’s genetic rescue plan 2018-19, in which 19 gray wolves were introduced.
One can infer that the rogue wolves were on the east side of the island, near Rock Harbor, as that is where the Park Service began its hazing campaign. This is where most of the human activity is and where the fewest moose are. Perhaps the wolf just had fewer options.
One thing is clear: a wolf attack because of human food sourcing would be a human tragedy and a disaster for wolves in North America. The myth of the big bad wolf is just that, a fairy tale. Fatal wolf attacks on humans in North America are extremely rare. In Saskatchewan in 2005, a wolf was killed due to human food habituated wolves near a garbage dump. In this case, the 22-year-old was warned not to hike in the area after a bush pilot’s aggressive encounter with those specific wolves. In 2010, Candice Berner, a solo jogger in Alaska, was killed, marking the first recorded fatal attack in Alaska.

 

Happy Birthday Colorado

Happy Birthday, Colorado!

I’ve lived in Colorado twice in my life, the first time was as an infant. My folks packed up the car, and we headed for Durango. I attribute my love of mountains to that early imprinting. At age 14, I picked up the camera on my first backpacking trip. Luckily for me, my Dad was not a photographer, and the rolls of film allocated to documenting our week-long adventure went unused. I was the most advanced art student in my middle school, but it all felt like speaking a foreign language. As I tried framing the San Juan Mountains in the viewfinder, everything clicked. The cloud of mosquitoes around me became inconsequential. My sore muscles from long days on the trail stopped screaming. That moment was transcendental. Photography was “It” for me, a natural blend of technology and artistry. While not a Colorado native, I was born a Landscape Photographer that day.

World Bear Day

Juniper and Fern celebrate World Bear Day with extra enrichments from Staff at the Woodland Park Zoo, which delights visitors. The two-year-old bears were rescued after being orphaned. The pair serve as ambassadors as Washington State ponders Grizzly Bear (Ursus Arctos Horribilis) reintroduction in the North Cascade Mountains.

World Wildlife Day – 2024

On World Wildlife Day, an Orphaned Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), named Juniper, climbs about in her enclosure at the Woodland Park Zoo. The National Park Service is evaluating the reintroduction of Brown Bears to the North Cascades. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a draft plan that is moving forward. Proponents say Grizzly Bears are an indicator species and a sign of a healthy ecosystem. The last confirmed sign of them was in 1996.

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