On June 18, 2014 around 4:30 p.m., my husband and I were on the trail from Tokopah Falls near the Lodgepole campground in Sequoia National Park. There was a small gathering of people watching a black bear with her two cubs feeding in a meadow. As I moved up and down the trail trying to get a good angle to take a photograph of the event, my husband elbowed me and said, "Look! There's a deer!" Indeed, the deer was about six feet away from the trail, but the doe was paying no attention to the viewers. Her attention was fixed on the bears, who were now face down, feeding at the base of a large tree. Moments before the deer's arrival, I had heard some soft cries and thought it was the baby bears crying to their mom….
As you can see in the second photo, the adult deer passed very close to the bears as she circled the tree. At first, she was silent, but after a few circles, she started vocalizing. Clearly, she was in distress. Periodically, she would stop looking off to the left of the scene as if she were waiting for reinforcements. No other deer were to be seen during the 20 minutes that we stayed at the site. The next two videos are of the interaction between the bears and deer. Words are unnecessary to sum up this Life 101 event.
