Amur Tigers

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(12-08-2016, 03:06 PM)brotherbear Wrote: Great Soul of Siberia by Sooyong Park.
We carefully made our way down the Dragon Spine and along the river. Cascading mud had erased the path and made the riverbank very slippery. The river and forest were inundated with a milky mist. I couldn't see so much as a foot in front of me and felt as though I were in a sea of fog. In the fog, I saw something black moving along lazily. It waded across the river and approached me. My heart pounded. The wind stirred the thick fog and unveiled the mystery: it was a towering Asian black bear. 
Perhaps it was the fog or its bad eyesite, but it continued heading toward me even though I was standing right in its path. My heart raced faster. I thought about retreating, but stood still. The bear that had been looking straight at me finally grasped the situation, and his expression changed instantly. He quickly turned and ran down the wild, muddy river and disappeared into the fog again. 
It's curious. I never see bears when I'm wandering the forest looking for them, yet in a moment like that, when the forest was in disarray after the storm and all parties were distracted, we had tun into each other. It may have had bad eyesight, but bears have good senses of smell and hearing, and it had come up to me all on its own. It had all happened so quickly that I could hardly believe I had just seen a bear except for the fact that I distinctly remember thinking that bears swim as well as tigers do.

I am pretty sure that bears have as good of an eyesight as humans do, though less than cats, so it wouldn't make sense that the bear approached Park because of it. Bears are; however, pretty curious about their surroundings at all times. Reply