Bears

This selection of Nick’s work covers the three species found in North America; Grizzly Bear, Polar Bear and Black Bear. Grizzlies (a subspecies of Brown Bear) have strongholds in British Columbia and north to Alaska, where their range only marginally overlaps with the larger Polar Bear. We’re accustomed to seeing Polar Bears on snow and ice, but Nick’s photos of them amongst tundra vegetation at the end of the summer cast them in a new light.

The Black Bear is widespread in North America, but one particular subspecies, the Spirit or Kermode Bear, which is creamy-white (but not an albino) is found only in a small enclave on the coast of British Columbia. There are perhaps no more than 300.

And in case you’re interested, the name Teddy Bear was coined after an incident involving U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, nickname "Teddy". When, in 1902, whist on a hunting trip in Mississippi, Roosevelt refused to kill an American Black Bear that had been “set up” for him to shoot deeming it unsportsmanlike.

A political cartoonist of the day seize upon the story penning a cartoon of black bear lassoed by a white handler and a disgusted Roosevelt looking on. The symbolic overtones were obvious.

Consequently Morris Michtom was inspired to create a new toy: a little stuffed bear cub, which he put it in his shop window with a sign that read "Teddy's bear”. The toys were an immediate success and Michtom founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co., which is still exists to this day.

• Bears
• Yellowstone
• British Columbia