I worked my first night shift last Friday. We saw a few different bears that night, including a bear that knows how to break into cars and houses and a young bear who appears to be completely unafraid of people (but who doesn’t… yet… know how to break into anything; I suspect she’s been fed).

But the first bear I saw that evening was in an open area in the west Valley, away from any development. The bear was grazing on grass and never noticed us looking at him from 100 yards away. He had no tags, no collar; we’d never seen him before.

It was a beautiful bear, and a truly wild one. Come fall, this bear will still be beautiful. But will he still be wild?