Still Life: Bear in a Chair

Here’s a remarkable photograph recently taken by a neighbor of mine, Eric Richter, in Garrison, N.Y., 55 miles from midtown Manhattan. The black bear decided to take a quick break in a lawn chair after hunting for food around the house. It’s fuzzy only because it was shot on the run in partial shadow. (There’s no digital weirdness, promise).

Dot Earth has occasionally explored readers’ experiences with wildlife. I’m not sure if this exurban bear constitutes wildlife. It brings to mind the recent study from Lake Tahoe in California showing that bears frequenting the town were 30 percent heavier than those living the truly wild life. (When I reported on that research, that was my first exposure to Human-Wildlife Conflicts, a journal devoted to this intersection of humans and wild species.)
What unorthodox wildlife encounters have you had (and/or photographed or videotaped)? [UPDATE 4 pm: I’ve started adding some below. :-]

Here’s a description of the bear episode by Amy Richter, Eric’s wife:

On Saturday, August 15th, Eric and I were both upstairs. We had left our sliding patio doors open, with just the screen doors across them, not the glass doors. The doors open from our kitchen to our deck, in the back of the house. Eric heard a crash and went downstairs to investigate. When he got downstairs he found one of the screen doors pushed in, and the bear on the deck. Thankfully the bear had not come inside!

Eric reports that the bear circled the deck and then proceeded down onto the lawn and into the backyard. It was obviously hungry, as it left drips of saliva on the deck. It had probably smelled the burgers we had cooked the night before on the grill, and the fruit that I had on the counter right inside the kitchen.

Eric had the presence of mind to grab his camera, and took the photos. The bear continued down our lawn for about 40-50 feet. He picked up one of the plastic Adirondack chairs and tossed it around, then sat in the other chair. (It was at about this time that I came downstairs.) The bear stayed in the chair for about 2 minutes, then continued off into the woods in a northeasterly direction…. Since we live on the edge of the woods we’ve seen many other interesting animals (fox, coyotes, bobcat), but never a bear. I had always been surprised that we’d never seen one.

If you want to share images or video of your unconventional wildlife encounters, post a comment with a YouTube or Flickr.com link or email dotearth AT nytimes.com. Here’s one of my own, from my days in the Amazon:

Here’s “Pete,” a rescued hummingbird, courtesy of Elizabeth Tjader, a frequent Dot Earth contributor who lives in Northern California (and here’s her description of this prolonged bird encounter).

Wayne Hamilton sent this photo of a Townsend warbler that rested awhile on his boat many miles from land. Trying to nail down the location, but here’s a link to what he wrote of the warbler, which he’s nicknamed ‘Petra.’

Laurie Dougherty, a frequent contributor from the Boston area, says she took this picture of a curious turkey in August 2006 across the street from her home.

Richard Wallace of Ursinus College points to photos of seals that he took on a trip to the Galapagos Islands.