Bears all over the mountains

Above: A photo of a bear taken by a trail cam in Margaretville. Courtesy of Adam Varsano.

Last week, we urged you to send us your bear photos -- and did you ever. Thanks to Adam Varsano, whose furry subject appears to have noticed that his cover has been blown by a nearby trail cam.

Below is a set of astonishing bear photos from Peter Possenti, who has a weekend house near Perch Lake in Andes. Peter writes:

I took them from right behind my sliding glass door.  The closeups are with a telephoto, a 300mm I think. My wife was encouraging me to step out the door and get closer...I declined.

A wise move. (Please don't try to get close to bears -- or feed them! -- in an effort to get photos like these. It often ends badly for everybody, particularly the bears.)

And here's an incredible video from Dan Burkholder of Palenville, taken just last week with Dan's iPhone 5. Dan writes:

This was in our front yard here in Palenville. Jill (my wife) had raked up the acorns earlier in the day (this year is a bumper crop), intending to put them in the woods later for squirrels and such.

Thanks to everyone who submitted photos or video. And a reminder to all you gumshoe wildlife photographers out there: Enter your photos to earn a Catskills "Where The Wild Things Are" badge from us! (We've gotten a lot of scoutworthy submissions, and we're gearing up to send out the first round of badges soon.)