MONTANA (KTVX) — Casey Anderson is a Montana-based wildlife photographer who has traveled all over the world and has worked with National Geographic, Discovery, and the BBC. He also does a lot of exploring and filming in Utah.
Recently, he launched a YouTube channel called Endless Venture, and one unique video he shared has been gaining a lot of traction.
“I’m always looking for unique, cool places, something that most people wouldn’t do, I guess, at some level, that can share stories that are kind of secret, or most people won’t see,” Anderson explained. “And I found a grizzly bear den, which is very hard to find, especially one that’s going to be there year-round.”
He left his camera in a Paradise Valley cave, just north of Yellowstone. He then promptly forgot about it for a decade.
“It turns out I’d put it in there 10 years ago, and then had a couple kids, and life got too busy, and I kind of forgot about it, honestly,” he explained. “And then, you know, suddenly it came up to me, I’m like, ‘Oh, I have that camera up in that cave. I got to go get it.'”
Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson with grizzly bears, courtesy Casey Anderson/Endless Venture 
Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson in the wilderness, courtesy Casey Anderson/Endless Venture 
Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson in the wilderness, courtesy Casey Anderson/Endless Venture 
Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson in the wilderness, courtesy Casey Anderson/Endless Venture 
Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson with grizzly bears, courtesy Casey Anderson/Endless Venture 
Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson with grizzly bears, courtesy Casey Anderson/Endless Venture 
Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson with grizzly bears, courtesy Casey Anderson/Endless Venture
It took another year for Anderson to go get it, because it was far away and in a remote area.
“I didn’t know if it was going to be there. Ten years in a den, you know, with all the animals going in and out, the chances are it was going to be gone,” he said.
But not only was the camera still in the cave, but there was still juice in the batteries, though it was only barely working.
The camera functioned very similarly to a game camera: it only activated when there was motion in front of it. Because it was in a very controlled setting, the only time there was motion was when animals were coming in and out of the cave, and that meant the battery was able to last that long.
“So it was like, you know, waking up at Christmas morning, opening up a present you don’t know you were going to get, and we opened it up and put the card in a reader so we could look through the footage,” he described.
Photos taken by a camera left in a grizzly bear cave for 10 years, courtesy of Casey Anderson/Endless Venture 
Photos taken by a camera left in a grizzly bear cave for 10 years, courtesy of Casey Anderson/Endless Venture 
Photos taken by a camera left in a grizzly bear cave for 10 years, courtesy of Casey Anderson/Endless Venture
Anderson found a treasure trove of footage. There were over 200 videos on the card, with footage of bears and other surprises, like mountain lions, coyotes, and some rarer animals, including a possible wolverine.
“It was just so interesting because again, it was just like this slice of time, 10 years of time, and it’s one little location and all these animals calling this cave home over time,” Anderson said.
He added that it’s almost impossible to do something like that, because you get impatient or curious about what the camera is capturing.
“Because of forgetfulness and, you know, procrastination, we got 10 years of footage that is untouched.”
Finding the cave
“Bears will den, particularly grizzly bears, will den up very high in the mountain. They like to dig their den in a place where the snow is going to cover it up very deep, so it insulates them through the winter,” Anderson said.
They usually go up between 8,000 and 9,000 feet, and that’s exactly how high up the den he found was.
“I was just actually walking around looking for mountain lions on these cliff edges and just happened to come around the corner, and there was this hole in the ground and the rock, and I crawled in there,” he recalled. “And you could see where a bear had built like a bed in there and had been using it over and over again.”
He described the find as luck and chance. “I think the difference between me and most people is if I see a hole in the rock or in the ground, I’m the guy who likes to go stick my head in there and see who’s living there,” he said. “And I took it one step further and put a camera in there, too.”
Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson explores a grizzly bear den, courtesy Casey Anderson/Endless Venture 
Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson explores a grizzly bear den, courtesy Casey Anderson/Endless Venture 
Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson explores a grizzly bear den, courtesy Casey Anderson/Endless Venture 
Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson explores a grizzly bear den, courtesy Casey Anderson/Endless Venture 
Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson explores a grizzly bear den, courtesy Casey Anderson/Endless Venture
He added that he does it very cautiously, and he doesn’t recommend that everybody do what he does. “When you go and knock on the door, is anybody home? Sometimes, sometimes there is somebody home,” Anderson said.
He recounted one encounter where he stuck his head in a den, and there was a mountain lion in it. “It jumped right over the top of me. I saw it was going to leap; it was just going to try to escape, but I kind of crunched down, and it went right over the top of me and ran off.”
“I don’t want to harass animals if they’re in their home being comfortable, but again, it’s what I do for a living,” he added. “Getting this intimate look into a life of an animal you just never would get.”
He said that he hopes to show the reality of these animals, especially large predators, to show they do more than what we hear about in the news.
“The truth is, they are dangerous animals, and they can kill people, but there’s this other side of them, and the real truth of these animals is somewhere in the middle. So, I think it’s my job as a storyteller and taking some of these risks to go out there and tell the other side of the story.”
Alexa McFadden contributed to this reporting.