Hungry bears and busy beavers: Alberta photographer captures animals in their elements
Photographer Rick Price gets up close with dandelion-munching grizzlies, beavers building dams
This is a busy time of year for Alberta's wild animals as they emerge after the long winter — even if we don't get to see most of the action.
But with skill, patience and some long lenses, nature photographer Rick Price recently snapped these great shots of beavers in Hinton and bears in the mountain parks.
The bear shots are from late May to the middle of June in Banff and Jasper national parks.
When the bears come down from the mountains to feast on the new spring growth, they seem to be almost everywhere, Price says. And then they vanish.
Bears seem to love munching on dandelions.
Price uses several cameras for his nature pictures, including a Nikon D750 and a Nikon D800, with a 28-300 mm lens and the new Nikon 200-500 mm for telephoto shots — so he doesn't need to get as close as it appears.
An adult and a cub graze together in a field.
Busy beavers in Hinton
Price took these shots of beavers in Hinton, Alta., at the town's Beaver Boardwalk.
The boardwalk is a three-kilometre wooden pathway that winds through wetlands and a fully functioning beaver pond on the southern edge of town.
"The trick to beaver sightings is that they are only out at extreme dawn and dusk, and the other 95 per cent of the day you won't see them," he said.
"They are habituated to people and you don't have to take a telephoto lens ... they will be right there, in your face, 15 feet away."
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