The inspiration for this image arose from talks with Raymond Skiles, who served as Wildlife Biologist for Big Bend National Park from 1987 through his retirement in 2018. In 1989, very soon after Skiles took on his new role at BBNP, visitors in the Chisos Mountains reported sightings of a mother black bear with two young cubs, who were soon confirmed as the first bears born in the park since before its establishment in 1947. This began an intensive period of research aimed at determining the population ecology of the new bears in BBNP.

 

In recent years, the bear population in the region has become stable enough for them to expand their range. Sightings of these bears in new places has led to new questions which require a new phase of research, spearheaded by the Borderlands Research Insititue.

 

This image, showing two cubs playing together as their mother keeps an eye out for any dangers, is meant to represent that first family exploring their new Chisos Mountains home back in 1989, beginning a new story of black bears in the Big Bend that continues today.

 

In the Instagram video below, I talk a bit more about the painting and some of the things I like about it!