Walk in the wild rewards Oliver nature photographer with amazing bear cub photo

Oliver resident Curtis Zutz took a road less travelled recently and ended up with a great photo opportunity with a bear cub,

Zutz enjoys going for nature walks and taking photos of wildlife, which he often posts to his Facebook page Curtis Zutz Nature Images.

He usually walks in the rural area around Oliver, but one day a few weeks ago he decided to deviate from his normal route on the way back to his vehicle. He walked through some thick shrubs into a clearing where he startled a bear cub.

“It took off in front of me and climbed a tree. I took a couple more steps and saw the mother bear. She could have been on me in a couple of seconds, but she took off the other way. Good thing, because I wouldn’t have had a chance to do anything,” Zutz says.

Zutz climbed a small rise next to the tree the bear cub was in and found himself almost horizontal to the small bruin. That's when he started taking photos.

“I went to get closer to the cub, but the mother had returned. I took a few more photos and got out of there,” Zutz says.

He posted the photos to social media Monday, Nov. 30, where they are attracting a lot of attention.

“I don’t publish my bear photos right away, because people are on the internet looking for that kind of thing, then going and poaching them out. I don’t reveal the exact location they were taken either,” he says.

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