Quite the looker! This pretty lady bear took a break from grazing and babysitting her two cubs to give me a nice, head on look. As you can see, she is one big bear.

I don’t know that you can truly appreciate the size of a grizzly or brown bear until you see one in person. Naturalist George Ord gave the grizzly its classification, ursus arctos horribilis, due to its intimidating character.

Lewis and Clark studied and wrote extensively about grizzlies including relaying one story in their journals of an encounter during which Lewis was actually chased by one. Not an enviable position to be in for sure!

Mama grizzly wasn’t too interested in letting one of her two little ones go for a ride. 😉 

Mother Nature saved the best for last on my excursion to Yellowstone and the Tetons. We were on our way home when we spotted three distinct figures off in the willows and clovers. Instantly we knew what it was – and who it was.

Say hello to the infamous Felicia and one of her little ones (the second was just out of frame to the right).

Female grizzly bears can push 400 pounds and this big, pretty lady is probably somewhere near that. She was absolutely impressive and her cubs adorable.

Felicia, officially known as Grizzly 863, is estimated to be eight years old and has become a fixture in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Her propensity to hang out in well-trafficked areas has caused consternation among wildlife officials and they recently tried to haze her to get her to move to more private environs. That clearly did not work for long.

There has been a lot of debate over how to handle her as she has never been a truly problem bear – she hasn’t threatened humans or shown any desire to intrude on human settlements. Felicia simply seems to like the area due to its abundant food supply and the fact that being in the proximity of humans helps to dissuade male bears (boars) who might threaten her cubs.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has said that more extreme measures including possible euthanasia may be taken, something I find personally abhorrent given that Felicia has thus far not presented any threat – and if she did, it would likely be the fault of stupid human behavior, not her.

Going back to July 2019 for this series of images and our trip to Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. The fishing was great – for the bears. 😉

The bears were very active, working hard to fatten up for the coming winter. We would stage ourselves with a school of salmon between us and the bears and more often than not, the bears would charge at the fish, coming right toward us.

It was absolutely thrilling to watch (and perhaps a bit unsettling too – haha). When one would catch a fish, any other bears nearby would take notice. In the last couple of frames, you can see a second bear behind the one that caught the fish. It soon chased the first bear, hoping to steal its catch. They ran by and disappeared in the brush so I don’t know if it was successful.

This is a series of 38 images shown in about 7 seconds, slower than what it happened in real time. In reality the whole sequence happened in about 4 seconds so that gives you a sense of how fast these massive creatures can move.

Going back to July of 2019 for this image and our trip to this most amazing place and these incredible creatures.

This bear was quite the accomplished fisherman, handily pulling fish after fish out of the river. Here, it looks for another one while still having the remnants of the previous catch on its snout.

It does indeed appear the bear is making eye contact with me / you, however it was quite focused on the school of salmon that lie between it and I (thankfully – haha).

Oh how I yearn for the day when I can return to Alaska and experience the sights, sounds and wildlife of our 49th state again.

Charge! My mind has been wandering to our 49th state and my trip up there a year-and-a-half ago. It was an amazing excursion punctuated by time spent in Katmai National Park and Preserve observing these massive creatures.

Out of a couple dozen bears we saw that day, this one proved to be the one I photographed the most. It was certainly one of the larger ones and that dark, brown fur made it look somewhat menacing. However, it wasn’t a particularly great fisherman which meant we were able to watch it charge after the salmon multiple times, usually coming up empty-clawed.

Here you see it charge through the river’s waters toward a #salmon that you can see just in front of the bear. It missed its target (again) on this attempt but at least I got some nice pics. 😉

One for #ThrowbackThursday captured one year ago today in what was the single most amazing wildlife viewing experience I have ever had.

My wife and I were spending two weeks RVing in Alaska exploring from Denali down to Homer and everything in between. As the trip was nearing an end, we took a float plane into Katmai National Park and Preserve, a vast, largely untouched wilderness.

Hiking along the river, we saw dozens of brown bears that day. They largely ignored us human interlopers and remained focused on the potential feast in the water before them – salmon.

The techniques the bears used varied. Some would simply stand in the water and wait for the fish to come to them. Others, like this beautiful one, were more active, running in the shallows while watching for the bright, red fish and then running full speed toward their target.

It was simply amazing to see and an experience I will never forget.

Spending time in brown bear territory of course has its risks. However, the bears in this area of Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska generally just ignore the human fishermen and photographers.

They are far more interested in the salmon than us bipedal creatures. We saw dozens of bears, most didn’t even cast us a glance.

Our guide explained that the ones to be most wary of were the young ones. They will have not been on their own for long, are inherently curious and have not quite learned the rules of the road in dealing with humans.

These two fit that description. They were coming up the river toward us and showed no inclination to keep a healthy distance. Our guide told us to be prepared to back up should the pair continue to approach and, of course, we didn’t need to be told twice.

Thankfully, after stopping a bit close and sniffing the air, they decided we weren’t worth their interest and moved on. A fun but slightly disconcerting encounter. 😉

One more for Mothers Day. Taken last July in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

This brown bear sow and her three cubs were working their way down the river. She would eventually stash them in some tall grass then go fishing where she proved her prowess as the provider for the little ones.

Try as we might, we never could get a decent shot of her with the three of them but it was a thrill to see them. She was large and in charge and definitely ready to protect her cubs if need be. Those little ones, well, they definitely were cute although here they were pretty soaked having just swam across the river.

The fish were running away and I can’t say I blame them as I would too with 1,000+ pounds of hairy beast chasing after me. 🙂

This particular boar put on a nice show for us in Katmai National Park and Preserve this past summer, largely because he just wasn’t that good at fishing. It took him multiple attempts to catch one giving us a bunch of photo ops of him running through the waters of the river chasing the salmon.

More than that, it gave us a great appreciation of the size and power of these creatures. Just absolutely impressive.