Humans and bears - Wild encounters

[brotherbear]

Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock.

I learned to distinguish the personalities of about fifteen individual grizzlies. The animals formed a social hierarchy with a huge brown grizzly, the alpha male, at the top. When he arrived at the feeding site, all other bears scattered. Otherwise, the bears fed together without a great deal of conflict.

Another dominant grizzly, a female who was subordinate only to a couple of big males, showed up on the scene in August with four cubs. This group constituted the biggest family I had ever seen. Sow grizzlies usually have two cubs, sometimes one, and occasionally three, but hardly ever four. This mother bear was the most protective I encountered. Reply