Remember when I mentioned the BIG bears were going to be coming up? Well, I get to make good on that promise! Yep, today I bring you the heavy hitters in the Ursus category. As of late, I’ve focused on the American Black Bear because that has been the primary bear encounters we have had in the wild. The Grizzly below was the only one we encountered on our May 2013 trip
That folks, was one big Grizzly. It definitely rivals the previous Grizzly we saw out there (link here) and definitely closer. From a picture perspective, these shots have an odd grainy grey shine to them. There is a reason for that – it was SLEETING at that time these were taken. Not just a bit of sleet either – it was an all out ice downpour that made it quite difficult to get a decent shot. The Beast doesn’t mind the harsh shooting conditions, but my fingers were freezing and my eyes were taking a beating – a few shots into it I decided to just enjoy the moment. For those that have seen the remake of the Walter Mitty movie, remember the point where Sean O’Connell declares that he doesn’t like to have the distraction of the camera – that part of the movie always brings me back to times like this. The point where you stop concentrating on all the technical camera details and focus instead on all the wonders nature has to offer. The world tends to get distorted looking through the tunnel of big glass.
For those that may not be up with their Grizzly trivial, you might be surprised to know that the term Grizzly Bear isn’t the term used by the wildlife scientists. Nope, those hoity-toity elitists use the clearly more boring moniker of North American Brown Bear – dud. According to our friends over at Wikipedia, the Grizzly name was actually given by Lewis and Clark – referring to it as grisley in reference to the golden/grey hair tips. Apparently this just had to be corrected in 1815 – could have at least named it something like the Humpty Bear or maybe the much more accurate Skaryazshit Bear. Did I mention these beasts have males ranging in the 400–800 lb range and females in the 300-400 range? For reference, Black Bear males have a high end of the scale at 550 and the females are a little closer topping out at 375. Honey, where is that bear spray!
For snicks I processed out the sleet to give a better view of how these majestic animals look under normal conditions.
It is officially time to close out the bear posts from Yellowstone. We were blessed with a number of sightings while we were out there and was excited to finally get them posted on the blog for all to share. Don’t worry, I still have a number of different posts coming from Yellowstone. I need to get through these so I can get to all those other shoots I’ve fallen woefully behind on.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Now that bear, unlike the Black Bear, does not lend itself to going up and petting it! BTW, next time you go to Yellowstone you should borrow my binoculars for those times when you just want to watch the bear. I do that sometimes with birds after I get a certain number of photographs and don’t expect any better ones.
Thanks for the Grizzly Bear pics. I did know that about the Brown Bear, which is what they call it in Alaska, for example, being the same as the Grizzly Bear. I just looked up what a Kodiak Bear is–apparently an Alaskan Grizzly Bear is a different subspecies, which is probably why they call this Grizzly Bear a Brown Bear up there:
“The Kodiak bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi), also known as the Kodiak brown bear or the Alaskan grizzly bear, inhabits the islands of the Kodiak Archipelago in southwest Alaska. Its Alutiiq name is taquka-aq. It is the largest brown bear and one of the two largest bears, the other being the polar bear.”
“taquka-aq” translates roughly to “Holy ****!”
Is that like four bear posts in a row? And no bird posts?
Ron
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Taquka-aq you are right, that was four bear posts in a row! This is exactly what happens when I try to get caught up. I have to give perfectly good bird slots up for other topics cost me +1 after +1. Um, well, except for the +2 that came from this set of shots, but still, all these birds sitting in the are getting pissed off. On the plus side, it did cut down on all the birding hate mail.
Not only did I get a comment this time, I learned something as well which will assuredly come in handy in Trivia Crack – thanks for the next win in advance.
Binoculars would definitely come in handy out there – I am getting pretty good at spotting animals in the park now, but the binoculars might reveal all the things I’m missing … translate late that to a lot more +1s
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Taquka-aq! There would have to be an understanding that any bird found via the binoculars cannot count as a +1. The last thing I need is to provide a means for you to get any more new birds.
Ron
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too late …already offered hehehehe
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