Bear 610

 Here's what I have been working on over the past few weeks.  This is bear 610, who lives in Katmai National Park, Alaska.  She has quite the story - she was abandoned as a cub but managed to survive by keeping well out of the way of other bears down by the river mouth despite having a huge injury to her rear end which has left her with a large dent where it has healed.  How this little bear did not die is a mystery with so much against her.  But she did, and when she was a subadult she remained shy and aloof until other subadult bears attempted to play with her, whereupon she finally joined in and became one of the gang!  She is now an adult bear who manages just fine - I am waiting to see if she returns this year from hibernation with a cub or two of her own.

This was painted in watercolour on paper, with huge thanks to Olatz Azcona Munarriz for the use of her wonderful photo taken last year.