Wayne Ray of Fort Fraser, B.C., has photographed the secret life of cows.
When the herd is out on distant pastures, how does anyone know what cows encounter? Ray knows they encounter bears, for one thing, and he was in the right place at the right time – his cow pasture on Aug. 27 – to photograph his cows’ battle with a hungry black bear.
The cows won.
Ray, an avid photographer as well as a rancher, spotted the bear while checking the herd in his truck.
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“I went a little closer with the pickup, but I didn’t want to scare him off. All of a sudden, he started heading toward a calf,” said Ray in a telephone interview last week.
The cows took immediate action.
“They took turns stomping him and pushing him into the ground with their heads,” said Ray. He took about 100 photos, 50 of which were usable, and one of which is shown here.
It’s rare to capture such an encounter, so Ray’s wife sent a few of the best shots to a few family members and neighbours. Before he knew it, the photos had been transmitted to Associated Press, various U.S. television networks and have also appeared as far away as Australia.
To Ray’s chagrin, some media attributed the photos to a rancher from Oregon. He’s not sure how that happened but he is taking steps to ensure correct credit is given.
The B.C. rancher, who has about 150 cows on 2,200 acres, has lost cattle to predators before, although he saw the evidence after the fact rather than capturing it on camera.
“I think bears are a bigger problem than people realize,” he said. One year he lost 16 calves to wolves, and another time he lost a Simmental cow to infections he attributed to injuries sustained in a bear attack.
“I think she actually died from doing what these cows were doing.”
There are more details in my blog at www.producer.com, but for now, Ray’s photo below speaks for itself.
One of the cows was injured in the encounter, and the blonde cow shown here is a 12-year-old herd matriarch. The bear limped away.
The score: cows 1, bear 0.
