Brown Bear Directory

[brotherbear]

~~Fortress of the Grizzlies by Dan Wakeman and Wendy Shymanski - Bears of the Khutzeymateen:Fifteen years ago, Buffalo and Lefty were the two dominant grizzlies in the Khutzeymateen Valley.Buffalo looked like a large bison with his boxy stature, dark brown colouring, and hearty weight of 900 to 1,000 pounds. Solitary in nature and rarely seen, he was a confident, handsome bear with a slow and powerful walk, and he surely has a lot of offspring to his credit. He and Lucy mated regularly for about six years.Lefty looked more like a gorilla. Although about the same weight as Buffalo, he was not quite as good-looking. We called him Lefty because Buffalo bit his ear off in battle. Lefty had many major battle scars, including a partially deformed face and a three-foot-long scar on his side, which reflected the horrific battles that can take place over females and territory.No one has seen Buffalo for a few years now, and he would probably be over 30 if he is still alive. Lefty, who was seen mating with Lucy after Buffalo disappeared from the scene, is well into his late twenties.
 ~~There are now new powerful male grizzlies exhibiting dominant bear characteristics, particularly Scarface. At fifteen to eighteen years of age and 800 pounds, he is a brute force to be reckoned with.We meet Scarface one afternoon as we peacefully watch Lucy from the deck of 'Sun Chaser'. Suddenly we hear the crack of breaking trees and the huffing of a steam engine from the forest. As the crashing nears, Lucy pauses in her grazing, looks briefly toward the noise, then bolts as 800 pounds of muscle and anger emerge from the forest and charge. We clutch our binoculars more tightly while the huge male grizzly froths at the mouth, his hackles standing straight up on his hump. As his head swings ferociously from side to side, he lets loose a deep moan from his scarred mouth.This is the image of a bear that horror stories revolve around, and we are rudely jolted to reality - not all the bears in the Khutzeymateen are passive and amiable. This bear would not give a human a second chance, especially under the circumstances. His hormones are urging him to pass on his genes, but Lucy is not interested. Now we have unknowingly disturbed his love nest and his frustration has exploded. The usual agitation indicators - standing on his feet or huffing - are discarded. Instead, he makes a direct charge to show he means business.As Lucy runs terrified into the forest, Scarface follows in hot pursuit. At the forest edge he shoots one last furious glare at us before his black-brown body is swallowed by the trees.This is the first of our handful of encounters with Scarface. Most male bears of his size stay well back, hidden in the forest, except during mating season. Every time we see him, we receive the same greeting. Perhaps there are other sides to his personality, but we will never know for sure because Scarface is such an elusive creature.
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