Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina is a popular family spot – for black bears! Spotting not two or three, but FOUR cubs is a special treat. Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge has what is believed to be one of the largest concentrations of black bear found in the southeastern United States. It’s not uncommon for visitors to see dozens of bears on a one-hour drive through the refuge. These tiny bear cubs were spotted at the end of May in an area on the refuge that grows crops for waterfowl. Feasting on blueberries and switch cane stems through the summer, the bears are majestic to watch. Please remember to be respectful of these wild animals and follow refuge signs and rules. Photo courtesy of Richard Thigpen.
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Top Shot: The Protection of Mama Bear
Top Shot features the photo with the most votes from the previous day’s Daily Dozen, 12 photos selected by the Your Shot editors. The photo our community has voted as their favorite is showcased on the @natgeoyourshot Instagram account. Click here to vote for tomorrow’s Top Shot.
A mother bear protects her cubs in Cabárceno Natural Park in Northern Spain. While the park is not a zoo, it does aim to conserve endangered species and increase environmental education. Photograph by Xavier Ortega
Watch out for bison jams at Yellowstone National Park. As nice as wildlife like bison look, they’re wild and unpredictable. Remember to never approach wildlife. The safest – and often best – view of wildlife is from inside a car. Always stay at least 100 yards away from bears and wolves, and at least 25 yards away from all other animals, including bison and elk. Be sure to stay in your vehicle if you encounter a wildlife jam, and do not feed wildlife. Animals that become dependent on human food may become aggressive toward people and have to be killed. Take the #YellowstonePledge to protect the landscape, wildlife and yourself at our nation’s first park. Photo by National Park Service.
Fall colors are already spreading across Alaska. It’s a great time to be a photographer there, spotting wildlife and snapping scenery. Photographer Nate Luebbe says “Lake Clark is by far my favorite National Park. Massive, glaciated peaks tower over turquoise lakes, while bears, eagles and moose roam the forests. There’s nowhere else I’ve been that has such amazing photographic potential in every direction.” Photo at Lake Clark National Park courtesy of Nate Luebbe.
Have you ever been to Alaska? Officially transferred from Russia to the United States on this day in 1867, Alaska is a vast land of epic natural beauty, incredible human history and some of the best wildlife viewing on Earth. Brown bears swipe salmon from pristine rivers, huge herds of caribou roam across the tundra and cute sea otters float together off endless stretches of gorgeous coastline. Some of the best places to enjoy Alaska are on public lands, like Alaska Peninsula and Becharof National Wildlife Refuges. They’re otterly fun! Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Summer green becomes autumn orange in the blink of an eye at Denali National Park in Alaska. Termination dust – what Alaskans call the high altitude snow that signals the end of summer – coats mountains and sprinkles onto valleys. The red leaves of blueberry bushes carpet the landscape and offer bears a last dessert before hibernation. It’s a feast for the eyes. Photo from a previous fall by Tim Rains, National Park Service.
Centennial Mountains Wilderness Study Area is some of southwest Montana’s wildest and most scenic country. The mountain range connects the Yellowstone Ecosystem with the northern Rockies, providing wildlife like moose, elk, deer, wolverines, badgers and black bears an intact migration corridor. The Continental Divide forms the southern boundary of the wilderness and the northern face of the range rises nearly 3,000 feet in less than a mile. The scenic mountains and contrasting colors of the valley provides outstanding opportunities for photography. Photo by Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management, @mypubliclands
Healthcare’s new rural frontier
How an Idaho hospital that serves a region with more bears than people is helping forge the future of American medicine.
By ANNA GORMAN
ARCO, Idaho — Just before dusk on an evening in early March, Mimi Rosenkrance set to work on her spacious cattle ranch to vaccinate a calf. But the mother cow quickly decided that just wasn’t going to happen. She charged, all 1,000 pounds of her, knocking Rosenkrance over and repeatedly stomping on her. “That cow was trying to push me to China,” Rosenkrance recalls.
Dizzy and nauseated, with bruises spreading on both her legs and around her eye, Rosenkrance, 58, nearly passed out. Her son called 911 and an ambulance staffed by volunteers drove her to Lost Rivers Medical Center, a tiny brick hospital nestled on the snowy hills above this remote town in central Idaho.
Lost Rivers has only one full-time doctor and its emergency room has just three beds – not much bigger than a summer camp infirmary. But here’s what happened to Rosenkrance in the first 90 minutes after she showed up: She got a CT scan to check for a brain injury, X-rays to look for broken bones, an IV to replenish her fluids and her ear sewn back together. The next morning, although the hospital has no pharmacist, she got a prescription for painkillers filled through a remote prescription service. It was the kind of full-service medical treatment that might be expected of a hospital in a much larger town.
Read more here
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