Lions of the Masai Mara

[concerned]

www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/5242986/Lions-of-the-Masai-Mara-filmed-using-remote-cameras.html

fantastic pictures.

[dgriffin]

Yes, nice content. The short lenses yield a wide angle, but distort the perspective. I wonder why the brothers didn't use multiple cameras. All the shots use wide angle lenses.

[bobbbiez]

Magnificent animals!

Just wouldn't want to meet one in their surroundings, all by myself.

[bobbbiez]

I still remember the movie Born Free. The true story of Elsa and her cubs. What a wonderful story of a beautiful animal that was released back into the wild.

[concerned]

I always liked the movie Born Free.

I liked the third photo, it really shows there intrinsic nature; that which makes them who they are. What a gift from God.

[frankcor]

My feline friend, Lucy, (who lets me live in her house and deigns it sufficient that I keep her food bowl filled) shares that intrinsic nature with her cousins.

I concur: a terrifying yet generous gift from God.

[dgriffin]

Actually, I don't like animal movies. The Farley Mowatt book and TV movie about a beached whale in .... Newfoundland? .... was my limit. Maybe because the actors were game show hosts.

Until "Bear." I LOVED that movie.

Maybe I identify better with a bear than a whale.

Bobbbiez, if you could be a wild animal, which would you choose?

[bobbbiez]

That's a toughie, but I'd have to say a cougar (puma,mountain lion, A.panther).

Not only are they powerful, and beautiful beast, but what I love most about them is they mate for life and are extremely loyal to their families.

How bout you Dave. What animal would you like to be?

Please don't say bears. I don't like them. They are very scary animals to me.

[bobbbiez]

Dave, did you ever see the movie, Born Free? It was based on a true story about two people, husband and wife, who found Else, raised her and then proceeded to return her back into the wild. Great story and movie. Very warm and loving people who managed to do what everyone said was impossible, for Elsa to survive. One animal movie well worth watching.

[dgriffin]

Bz, I'm afraid I'd like to be a bear. But I'd shower daily, and not chew on any carcass older than a week.

Yes, I did see Born Free with my kids when they were young, but I barely remember it. It could be the theme song I tired of, as well as all the marketing stuff.

[bobbbiez]

Dave, I was afraid you'd say, BEAR!!!!!!!!

Three times in my life I got the sh*t scared out of me because of bears. Ready for this?

My first encounter I was spending a weekend with my girlfriend and her family who lived in Thendara just outside of Old Forge. Went out one night to get something out of their car, stepped onto their porch, only to meet face to face with a bear. I let out a bloody scream and my friend's Dad came rushing out banging on a metal fry pan making the bear take off. Wasn't even old enough to know what depends were, but could have used them that night.

The second was when we "use" to take the kids camping up north. Had the hunters in our group tell me they've been hurting deer all their lives there and never saw a bear.
Well, one night I walked into a wooded area near our campsite to relieve myself and you guess it. I was squatting, heard a noise behind me, and there coming through the trees toward me was a bear. I think he went one way and I the other with pants still down around the ankles. This story does not end there. On the way home from that weekend of camping on Rt. 12 a bear and her cubs ran right in front of our jeep. After that weekend we left north and camped down south.

The third time was when I lived in N.Utica. In the newspaper one summer they had a few articles of bear sightings in other areas, but not in the city. We didn't take much stock in it because bears wouldn't be in the city. My neighbor and I were in the old N.Utica park with all our kids one sunny day when all of a sudden my neighbor screamed at the top of her lungs, "get in the car!" We did without question only to see a Momma bear with cubs coming down the hill toward us. We couldn't get out of there fast enough.
Sh*t, bears aren't suppose to be in the city unless safely kept in the zoo. This Momma bear ignored the sign, city line.

The real weird thing about my fear of bears is that as a very little girl I use to wake up screaming and told my parents I was having bad nightmares about bears. Before I had these encounters I told you about, within that week, I did have a nightmare of meeting up with a bear. Now you figure that out because I can't.

Question for you. Why do you want to be a bear and be serious. I don't want to hear you say, "so you can scare little girls."

[dgriffin]

So I can scare .... Not really. Why would I like to be a bear? If I were to magically be changed into a bear this very instant, I'd be underweight instead of overweight. Then, I could have another donut.

Lots of bear down here. I'm about 2 miles from the base of the Catskill escarpment. It used to be they came down the mountain when either there was no water up there or food. Now they seem all over the place. A lot of sightings. People have been warned to secure garbage cans and given other precautions. A bear killed a baby left out on the porch in a camp in Sullivan county a few years ago.

www.nytimes.com/2002/08/20/nyregion/catskill-bear-snatches-infant-from-stroller-and-kills-her.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/H/Housing

So your fears were not fanciful when you were a kid.

But I'd be a nice bear and eat only eat wolves.

[bobbbiez]

That's horrible! Poor little baby and poor mother. Not a scene I'd want to carry for the rest of my life.

I will avoid always. They're too unpredictable, smart and too big for me to want to handle in anyway.

Just don't want to think of you as a bear. Well, maybe Yogi Bear. ;D

[concerned]

a sloth. I love there toe's. And I think moss growing on my back would be interesting