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Brown Bear Directory
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Brown Bear Directory
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~Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock.Moving cautiously, I climbed down to study the bear prints. The rear pads were more than ten inches long on hard ground; the left track was asymmetrical and toed in. I checked more tracks to confirm the pattern. It's him alright, I had thought so - the Bitter Creek Griz, my favorite Yellowstone bear.I first got to know this unusual bear in 1977 and have seen him almost every year since. Even back then, he was a huge grizzly with a grayish muzzle - probably a survivor of the purges of the early seventies, when almost a hundred grizzlies were known killed or removed from the Yellowstone ecosystem in a single two-year period. He also appeared to be an effective predator, killing yearling bison and an occasional moose. His pigeon-toed spoor, perhaps the result of an old injury, was distinctive.I followed the prints out onto the crusted snow. The grizzly tracks followed my snowshoe trail for nearly a hundred yards, then veered off to the right in a tight circle to an icy depression behind a large deadfall ten feet off my trail. More tracks led away.The story was clear: last night the Bitter Creek Griz had backtracked me, then circled around and bedded, waiting for me behind a log ten feet from where I would walk. Had I gone farther into the timber that night he would have been right there. The icy bed told me he lay in wait a long time.This was the second time this had happened to me - a grizzly setting up what looked like a deliberate ambush. I do not know what it means. Maybe it is only curiosity. Still, there were moments when I imagined a malevolent intelligence lurking behind that log.Stalking or ambushing humans during the day is exceedingly rare although not unknown in the literature of grizzly lore. There was one report from British Columbia that during the winter of 1970, a Doig River Indian tracked a grizzly that circled back behind a mossy hummock and killed and partially devoured him. So I don't know what to think. I do not think every grizzly lying in ambush intends to do me harm, but I do not think the bears are joking either.This kind of unsettling behavior by grizzly bears resists easy categorization. It is one of the things that attracted me to them in the first place. Living with grizzlies is an eternal freshness: you can never be sure exactly what you are dealing with, and your curiosity transcends bafflement because you are bargaining with an animal who can kill and eat you.
~The Bitter Creek Grizzly was the only bear I knew of in Yellowstone that regularly killed moose and bison. He attacked younger animals - ambushed them from nearby timber, then dragged them back into the trees, sometimes covering the carcasses with dirt and sticks. I had seen this too many times to believe that these animals had all conveniently died during the winter. His was not the usual pattern of predation for grizzlies. In 1977, when I first crossed paths with the Bitter Creek Griz, a biologist had found another grizzly who had passed up many carcasses for live elk: The bear liked to kill what he ate. A few bears learn to kill healthy adult elk during all seasons, and cow-struck bulls during the rut were especially stupid and approachable. Yellowstone grizzlies also prey on elk calves, as they do caribou calves in Alaska, and moose calves in both places. Adult moose were generally a match for a grizzly except when snows were deep and lightly crusted: grizzlies can walk lightly over a thin crust, distributing their weight evenly on their plantigrade feet, and they glide over the top of deep drifts in which moose wallow. I thought that grizzly predation was not as common here as it had been a decade or more ago. The predatory segment of the population had probably been killed off selectively, and continues to be culled as they were born into it, because predatory bears are bolder and more visible. The Bitter Creek Griz was a holdover from the days when bears could afford to be bold and aggressive. Which served, as it always had, an important ecological function vital to survival of the species.
~Grizzly Years by Doug peacock.The wind blew at 20 mph across my face and I could not get a scent. A bedded buffalo, maybe, but the fur wasn't right.I edged a few steps closer and stared down at the biggest bear I had ever seen, fifty feet away, lying alongside the creek. He was on a carcass. It was the Bitter Creek Grizzly, the first time I had ever seen him in broad daylight. If he heard, smelled, or saw me, it would be all over. Fifty feet is much too close to a dominant bear who is almost certain to be aggressive in defending a food cache.Slowly I stooped, pivoted, and silently padded back over the snow out of site, up the hillside, one step at a time. It took me an entire hour to withdraw. The wind held and the bear never got my scent. I circled as quickly as I dared; I wanted to get this griz on film from a safer vantage point. I waded the creek and traversed up to a hilltop directly opposite the great bear. He lounged and slept, waking intermittently to feed. Now and then he shook his head or made short lunges at a flock of ravens also feeding on the carcass. He watched a coyote pass, curious but wary. Finally he rolled over on the bank and went to sleep. I studied all this through the viewfinder of Gage's camera. I had finally filmed the most elusive of my Yellowstone bears.I watched from the hilltop across the creek most of the day. Sometime in the late afternoon he moved off, dipping his nose to the ground and swinging across the snowy meadow to the far end of the valley into the trees. The huge grizzly lumbered seemingly oblivious of everything. His face looked relaxed and peaceful, an impression contradicted by a long scar below his left eye. The Bitter Creek Griz moved across the open valley as you might expect a dominant male grizzlyto move even when other grizzlies were present. While such a bear looks taciturn to us, his body language sends a message of warning to other bears.Before the Bitter Creek Griz disappeared, I filmed him with snow on his nose. He had a striking narrow silver-tipped collar around his ribs that I had not noticed earlier. Grizzlies look different as the intensity or angle of light changes.I sat spellbound at my good luck for an hour, then loaded up the cameras and tried following his tracks over the snow. The crust that held up a seven-hundred-pound bear was incapable of supporting me.
from National Parks Conservation Association's facebook page
 *This image is copyright of its original author Katmai National Park & Preserve’s most famous resident, the brown bear, knows that a swim is just what’s needed for a relaxing day at the beautiful and isolated Katmai—and if some red salmon dinner swims by, then all the better. Initially, as a National Monument, Katmai preserved the area affected by a devastating volcanic eruption, but one of Katmai’s greatest roles now as a Park & Preserve is as a safe home to some of the most enticing and remarkable wildlife. Katmai boasts a diverse collection of bird and fish species, but its most popular resident is undoubtedly the brown bear. More than 2,000 brown bears live in Katmai, and viewing bears remains a staple for visitors  *This image is copyright of its original author 409 aka beadnose with her impressive transformation last year.  *This image is copyright of its original author Bear's den from Katmai National Park
The Boss - http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/grizzly-no-122
Grizzly bear No. 122, believed to be approximately 15 years old, is the largest, toughest and most dominant grizzly bear in Banff, Yoho and Kootenay national parks. “His entire world revolves around food, and mating,” said Steve Michel, human/wildlife conflict specialist with Banff National Park. No. 122, who was the first bear out of his den this spring, has also made headlines for breaking into a dump, eating a couple of black bears, strolling through Banff’s Central Park in the middle of the day and fathering at least five of the park’s younger bears. He has also provided some valuable data during his time as one of the 26 bears collared during the past five years as part of a research project that’s working to reduce grizzly bear mortality on the railway tracks. From April 2012 to April 2013, wildlife officials were able to keep closer tabs on the then 210-kilogram male bear after he was trapped and fitted with a GPS collar. He dropped it a month later, but was re-collared on May 29, 2012, when his weight had already gone up by 10 kilograms. During the year he was collared, the data shows his range covered more than 2,500 square kilometres — much of it along the railway tracks and highways. “It’s a classic large home range,” said Michel, referring to male bears being on the move a lot. “He’s in three national parks: Banff, Yoho and Kootenay.” The data also show just how much No. 122 uses transportation corridors, despite being hit by a train several years earlier, to get around the parks. “It shows his dominance and his willingness to utilize habitats that are heavily developed by humans along the highway and railway and that he’s got a comfort level with that and he’s willing to exploit the food resources there,” said Michel, noting he’s been observed both picking kernels of grain off the tracks and eating dandelions along the roadway. “When you see how much he uses those transportation corridors, it’s remarkable he’s still alive. “He’s on the railway an extraordinary amount of time and he’s on the edge of the highway just as much.” Since 2000, 11 grizzlies have been killed on the highways such as the Trans-Canada and Highway 93 — both north and south. Another 14 grizzlies have died on the railway tracks in the three mountain parks in the same time period. Michel said No. 122’s use of the transportation corridors is something to keep in mind as they look for ways to keep bears safe. The data shows he’s already using the wildlife crossing structures in Banff to get across the Trans-Canada Highway, but he also goes back and forth along Highway 93S, which isn’t fenced the entire way. “That’s a high-speed highway with lots of commercial traffic and, again, he’s able to do this successfully,” he said. No. 122’s data also shows he spends a lot of time away in burned-out areas, either from prescribed fires or wildfires, around Flints Park in Banff and in several Kootenay wildfire sites. “It’s a good spot from a berry productivity standpoint because of fire,” explained Michel. No. 122’s collar stopped transmitting in spring 2013, but the Boss is never entirely off the radar. In August 2013, officials closed the Sundance Canyon area after a group of hikers came across him feeding on a carcass — he simply let out a huff rather than show any signs of aggression over the interruption. They investigated the incident, determining that he killed and ate a small black bear. “We have become aware of him killing a couple of black bears but I suspect that’s not an unusual thing,” said Michel, noting No. 122 will take advantage of any carcass on the landscape. “It provides him with a tremendous amount of protein and often at critical times of the year.” A week later, he was also found feeding on an elk carcass at Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park. It led to the evacuation of 12 backcountry hikers from the Rockwall trail as a precaution. By October 2013, No. 122 dropped his collar so any information since then has come from physical sightings and remote cameras. “We never re-collared him again,” said Michel. “We tried. He was an animal that was desirable for us to re-collar. He was giving us such good data.” In addition to having such a large home range, which officials know is larger based on those photographs and sightings, he’s also a dominant breeding male. The DNA gathered during his collaring showed that No. 122 is the father of all three of well-known No. 64’s offspring: No. 144, who was killed last year; No. 148, a well-known grizzly around the Banff townsite; and, her shy sister, No. 160. Both could be ready to breed this year. A year earlier, the approximately 300-kilogram male also fathered both of No. 72’s cubs around Lake Louise, where they spend a lot of their time. The six-year old blond-coloured bears, No. 142 and No. 143, are among six bears that could emerge with their own cubs this year. Both No. 64 and No. 72 have died of natural causes in recent years. The large male bear is expected to mate with many of the female grizzlies again this year — including his own daughters, which Michel said is “a reality of the bear world.” No. 122 and at least two large male bears have been spotted around Banff National Park in the past week. Despite his large size, which ranges from 225- to 325-kilograms, the Boss has never caused any problems. “He’s not a grizzly bear that has ever behaved in an aggressive manner,” said Michel, noting he spends a lot of time in public areas. “That’s really concerning. “What’s fascinating is the fact that he never showed any aggression toward people in spite of being in very close proximity to people on a regular basis.”
Grizzly Bear number #122, the Boss.
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author 101 years ago Robert Griggs began his exploration into the Katmai region. Volcanic ash and pumice were expected, but Griggs also encountered a landscape recently decimated by a mysterious flood of unprecedented size. The 6 mile wide valley had been filled several feet deep with water, uprooting trees and carrying them out into Katmai bay. As we celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service, Katmai commemorates the 100 year anniversary of the discovery of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Follow our Facebook page and look for #VTTSDiscovery to relive the thoughts, emotions, and challenges Griggs and his team faced.  *This image is copyright of its original author Brown bears fishing in Brook Falls, Katmai National Park. (April/2016)  *This image is copyright of its original author In the bear's world, there are no moral standards. Some bears will steal salmon from other, less dominant bears to get an easy meal. This is called "pirating." In this particular situation in 2010, 438 and her two 3.5 year old cubs were able to gang up on a larger and normally more dominant male, taking his catch from him. %20-%20Marine%20Drouilly.jpg) *This image is copyright of its original author Two Kodiak females going at each other.  *This image is copyright of its original author Kodiak female teaches her cub how to fish  *This image is copyright of its original author Kodiak female with a broken right ear.  *This image is copyright of its original author view up from within an (abandoned) Kodiak brown bear den. 1974. Most Kodiak bears will sleep in their dens throughout the winter, emerging in April-June. Female bears give birth to their cubs in the den during January and February. The mother and cubs usually emerge latest, around the end of May and early June.  *This image is copyright of its original author Pictured is a winter bear den with Refuge Manager Hensel showing the relative size of the entrance. Bear cubs are born in the den during the months of January and February. Weighing in at less than a pound at birth, they will remain in the den for several months nursing before emerging around May or June. photo: winter den entrance credit: USFWS
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/species/profiles/mammals/brown_bear2/brownbear_population_distribution/
Brown Bear - Population and Distribution, A truly international species. Approximately 100,000 brown bears are estimated to live in Eurasia, and about 70,000 of those are found in the former Soviet Union. 8,000 brown bears are thought to remain in western Europe and the Carpathians (Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania), and they are also thought to be found in Palestine, eastern Siberia and the Himalayan region, possibly the Atlas Mountains of northwest Africa, and Hokkaido (Japan). The species is still fairly common in the mountainous regions of western Canada and Alaska, where its population may reach 30,000 individuals. In other parts of the United States, fewer than 1,000 grizzly bears remain.Historical Distribution of The brown bear was once distributed in northern and central Europe, Asia, the Atlas mountains of Morocco and Algeria (northern Africa), and western North America as far south as Mexico. Prior to the arrival of European settlers, it was found on the Great Plains of North America. The populations of the Sierra Nevada and southern Rockies have been extirpated, while those of Northern Mexico were lost in the 1960s. Grizzly numbers were estimated at 100,000 in the United States in the early 1900s.
Where the brown bears live:
 *This image is copyright of its original author
 
The Bears of Katmai National Park, Alaska - https://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/photosmul...er_web.pdf
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