Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Bears of Katmai, Future Wife

Since Sarah has agreed to marry me, I think she will be okay with me publicly mentioning that we are in a relationship.  To be honest though, I haven't checked, so I might have to amend this post later.  Anyway, she and I went down to Katmai National Park last weekend to hang out with the bears.  The Park (and Preserve) has the highest concentration of Brown Bears in the world.  These brown bears live on the coast and live on grass and Salmon when they're around - so, they get to be a little larger than their inland brothers, who feed mostly on berries, grass, and maybe some bushes or something - I'm not really sure.


A sow with her two cubs.  It's tough to see all three in this picture, but if you look to the right of the sow, you will see the other cub's nose poking out.



Brown bears will not see humans as a food source, unless people condition them to that perception.  As you can see, this doesn't mean they're not curious about us, but we got pretty close and left unscathed. They have plenty else to do (eat, play, mate).


Adolescents...


Sarah and I with some flowers.  The darker ones are brown lilies - they are known for their distinct scent and unusual nickname ("Lady on the Pot").


Sarah is looking at me skeptically in response to some claims I made about being able to "take" the boar seen in the background.



We were on very flat land that allowed us to approach the bears without surprising them.  When done slowly  and quietly you can get pretty close to the bears - we were about ten feet from this guy.


I think the set of pictures below pretty succinctly tells the story of bear motherhood.



Yells at children to stop fighting; children don't listen...



Tackles child in hopes of ending conflict...


Everything seems okay; mother turns back...


Children continue; mother gives up.

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