ursusman's Identifications

This is an unfortunate roadkill I discovered on Hwy. 90 the other evening. I found it within a few hours of it being hit and was able to alert the county biologist who collected it to salvage the hide and skull for educational purposes and take a few tissue samples to send to a lab for research.

I had hiked the old trail west from the Lost Mine Trailhead towards Kibbe Spring when I encountered this very fresh bear scat. It was one of those moments when I was startled enough to look around to see if the depositor was nearby. The second image seems to show the poop well-populated with pinyon pine nuts, I think.
Scanned from 35mm Ektachrome slide.

This particular sighting has a place in our family lore. We spotted this Black Bear on the skree field on the west side of Green Gulch as we descended the canyon on the road. Several cars stopped to enjoy the sight. In our car, our 2-yr, 9-month old daughter looked up to see what everyone was pointing at and announced, "I see the bear!" It was the first complete sentence that she ever spoke.
Scanned from 35mm Ektachrome slide.