The Eye Lock

The Eye Lock

I captured this image while scouting out a new location for a future photo tour. The location is near the BC-Yukon border and is extremely remote - it's only accessible by helicopter (unless one wants to hike for 5-days!).

Averaged over a full year, brown bears (AKA grizzly bears) have a diet that consists mainly of vegetative matter and things that we generally don't think of as too hard to catch (like grass, carcasses they find, and ants and other insects). But at times they show their "carnivore side" (their "inner carnivore?" ) and actively hunt things that need to be stalked, captured and "dispatched". And when you watch a grizzly go after it prey you can't help but be impressed with its focus and efficiency.

In my experience one of the most telling signals in the animal kingdom that a predatory event is about take place is when a grizzly locks its eyes on "something" (and it's often not obvious to the viewer what that "something" is) and absolutely freezes while it maintains a deep stare. These focused "eye locks" can go on for an extended period of time (often a minute or more) and it almost seems as though the bear is in a complete trance. And they often end with the luckless subject of the eye lock on the receiving end of a predatory attack. The luckless victim could be one of many things - such as a seal, a deer, or (as in this case) - a pink salmon. Fortunately, the recipient of the stare (and predatory attack) is only very, very rarely a human!

This is my last image post for 2015...I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Years and a great 2016!

Subject: One very wet grizzly (Ursus arctos) locked on a salmon
Location: Taku River Drainage, near the BC-Yukon border, Canada
Camera: Nikon D4s
Lens: Nikkor 400mm f2.8E VR plus TC-14EIII (1.4x) teleconverter - 550mm total focal length. Hand-held. VR on and in "Sport" mode.
Exposure: 1/1250s @ f6.3; ISO 1250. -0.67 stop compensation compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: This is about 85% of full-framed image

A lot more info about this shot - including a 2400 pixel version of the shot - can be found here on my website...

http://www.naturalart.ca/galleries/latest/.

Comments and critiques welcomed - probably best to view the larger version (or, better yet, the new detail view) prior to doing so!

Cheers...

Brad

PS: Like all wildlife images on my website and that I post on NPN, the subject is fully wild and completely unconstrained. Besides the potential impact of my presence, nothing has been done to intentionally alter or affect the ongoing behavior of the subject and, of course, there has been no use of any form of bait or other form of wildlife attractants (including vocalizations)