Tag: grizzly cub

Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear, Yellowstone National Park

A mother grizzly bear walks through the south end of Swan Lake Flat.
A mother grizzly walks through sage.

A well-known place in Yellowstone to look for grizzlies is a large open area called Swan Lake Flat.  It is especially good for seeing grizzly sows with cubs.  I have often seen grizzlies there, but they have always been too far away for good photos.

In May 2015 I got lucky.  I was approaching the flat from the south when I saw a flash of brown out of the corner of my eye.  I stopped and saw a mother grizzly with two two year old cubs walking parallel to the road about 75 yards away.   Unfortunately, they were heading in the opposite direction.  By the time I got the car turned around they had disappeared into some trees.  I drove to a spot that looked like it would be a good place to wait for them and got ready.

As luck would have it, after a minute or two I noticed that there was a very young elk calf between me and where I hoped the bears would pass.  It was standing in a little clump of trees.  Hmm.  Bears love elk calves.  In fact, grizzlies and black bears kill about 50% of the calf crop each year.  What if they see/smell the calf and charge toward it (and me)?  That’s as far as I got in my thinking when the bears came into view.  They didn’t detect the calf and kept going.  The calf got to live another day and I got my photo.

 

Grizzly Bear

Popular Grizzly Cub Killed by Car, Grand Teton National Park

Photo of a one year old grizzly cub.
Brownie’s Last Days

I photographed this 1 and 1/2 year old cub on three or more occasions in early June of this year.  Locals had named it “Brownie.”  Each time the cub was between 100 and 200 yards from the road near Pilgrim Creek.  Unfortunately, it’s almost certain that this is the same cub that was killed by a car on June 21st.  For two articles about the accident, click here.

This is one of 399’s cubs.  She is famous for her habit of staying near roads and people, at least when she has cubs.  She is also famous for producing triplets, which is rare.  I wrote about 399 and this cub previously and said that getting comfortable around roads and humans was not a good thing for cubs to learn.  You can read that story here.

One thing I want to point out about this photo is that it’s pretty easy to tell that this is a 1 and 1/2 year old cub.  Notice how long and narrow the face is.  It’s not much different in shape than the face of a German Shepard dog.  By the time a grizzly cub is one year older the face has changed a lot.   For a photo of a 2 and 1/2 year old cub whose face is noticeably wider, click here.  See the third photo.  The cub is on the right.  (Mom is still teaching junior the pecking order at dinner.   A couple of days later this cub got the boot from mom and a boar that came calling.)  For a photo of what the head of a really large grizzly looks like click here.   Notice how small the eyes appear in relation to the head.  Eyes grow little, if any, from birth.

Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Cub at Grand Teton National Park

Photo of 1.5 year old grizzly cub on its own.
Abandoned by Its Mother

I haven’t ever gone through Grand Teton on my way to or from Yellowstone, but I was leaning toward doing that on the way home this year when someone in Yellowstone told me of a spot to photograph a great gray owl.  That was all I needed to hear to make up my mind.  I didn’t find the owl, but this grizzly cub made up for it.

It is one of three cubs born to famous #399 a year and a half ago.  399 has become famous because of her habit of living with her cubs close to roads and humans.  Some believe she does this because boars are less likely to frequent such areas and thus the likelihood of a boar killing her cubs is lessened.  The downside to this is that her cubs can pick up the same habit and bears that are comfortable near humans and roads is not a good thing.  This cub is spending a lot of time close to the road at the intersection with Pilgrim Creek.

It’s not normal for a grizzly sow to give her cubs the boot at one year of age, but that’s what 399 does.  NPS says 399 was abandoned by her mom at that age and thus to 399 that’s what a mom does, I guess.  This cub’s chances of survival would seem to be lessened somewhat without the extra year of protection and education mom could provide.

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A Week at Yellowstone’s Blacktail Pond

As I mentioned in my last blog, there were two bison carcasses in Blacktail Pond in the spring of 2010.  The first scavenger I saw there was a coyote who was standing on the carcass which was in the water next to the east edge of the pond.  However, it was the carcass in a narrow channel on the west side of the pond that became the center of attention for scavengers as well as park visitors.  The first species I saw feeding on that carcass was a grizzly sow with a two-year-old cub.  Here the cub nuzzles its mother.  It’s May 20.

A grizzly cub nuzzles its mother at Blacktail Pond.
Grizzly Sow and Cub, Yellowstone National Park

The sow and cub stayed on a ridge above Blacktail when they weren’t feeding on the carcass.  Another animal that I saw feeding on the carcass more than once was a lone wolf.  Here he is the next day standing at the narrow channel.  The bison carcass has slipped back into the water and is just under the surface.

A gray wolf stands on the edge of Blacktail Pond.
Gray Wolf, Yellowstone National Park

This wolf worked as hard as the bears to pull the carcass out of the pond and I was surprised that he seemed to get the carcass about as far out of the pond as the much larger bears, although in fairness to the sow she might have done better without her cub’s help because he always pulled at right angles to mom.

One afternoon the wolf howled after feeding which brought the sow and cub running full speed from the ridge above the pond.  Here is a photo of mom and cub right after they arrive at the carcass.  She is really “amped up,” over the wolf’s howls.  When the cub approached the carcass as she was trying to pull it up on the bank she attacked it.  More to follow.

A mother grizzly attacks her cub near a bison carcass at Blacktail pond.
Grizzly Sow Attacks Cub, Yellowstone National Park.