Brown Heart

"Brown Heart"

Judy Royal Glenn Photography

Here is a short story of how two mushrooms lead to photographing a mama bear and her four cubs.

While deep in the woods of Cades Cove with Paul, my husband, and Darwin, a photographer friend, I stopped to photograph two mushrooms. Darwin busied himself photographing a stump as Paul rested leaning on a tree.

Paul heard some rustling behind him and turned to find a mama bear standing on her hind legs not far away. Paul scampered away to let us let us know.

The mama bear quickly “treed the cubs” (she told the cubs to go up the tree) in front of Paul. Bears use trees as babysitters while the mama forages for food.

Darwin told us that sometimes the mama bear will tree her cubs near humans to protect them from a male bear. Something in the tall brush spooked her. Maybe it was a male bear—she knows they could kill her cubs.  

Two cubs went with mom to forage and two stayed in the tree. Darwin and I left Paul to babysit the cubs in the tree while we photographed the mom and the other cubs. 

I love the brown heart on his face:)

Here are the mushrooms I stopped to photograph. If I had not stopped, we probably would have never seen the bear.

And we all lived happily ever after! 

The End.

Location: Cades Cove, Tennessee