Bear 610 with Cubs

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This is part of a clip I shot. Bear 610 with her 2 cubs were headed towards the road. She was looking for a place to cross.

When she got ready to cross, she started to run. Running will get the cubs to follow.

When she started running, there was Ranger on the road trying to monitor traffic. As she bolted across the road , she came within feet of the Ranger.

The cubs followed. The Ranger I’m sure was relieved that she just kept going.

Images by Cal

Wow Wow Wow! Can you believe it! Holy Cow! Not an unprecedented event but certainly a RARE event. Grizzly Bear 610 is the daughter of Bear 399. Coming out of hibernation this year, Bear 399 came out with 3 new cubs and Bear 610 came out with 2 new cubs of her own.

This last week the 2 bears whose territory overlaps, seems to have exchanged a cub. One of Bear 399′s cubs has taken up with Bear 610 and her 2 cubs. I guess this would be a brother or sister to Bear 610 would it not?

This is an evolving story that is going to intrigue all bear lovers.

Instead of calling this an adoption, we’ll have to wait and see. At this point, we could say 610 is helping mom out and doing a bit of “cub” sitting.

Stay Tuned for more on this one……

Cal

Bear 610 with Cubs

After having just returned from Wyoming where I was hoping to capture images of my favorite bears, I can say I had some limited success.

Last year, Bear 399 was known to have mated but did not appear from hibernation with any new cubs. Her offspring, Bear 610, now 5 years old, has produced 2 cubs of her own and is now raising them in the same area she was raised. Her mother, Bear 399 also appeared from hibernation with 3 new cubs. Very exciting stuff to bear watchers!

I spent a week roaming the areas where these bears are known to hang. I was really hoping to get some images of Bear 399 with her new triplets and to capture more family photos of Bear 610 and her 2 cubs. Such is the life of a wildlife photographer. Sit and wait. Hike around and wait. Drive around and wait.  In Alaska, I was flown in by bush plane to an area where to see a bear all you had to do is look in another direction. This last week, I think I spent 14hrs a day looking and out of 7 days searching, I was blessed with about 20- 30 minutes of shooting time. I was lucky enough to spot Bear 610 with her 2 yearling cubs a couple of times to get a few shots. Most of them were shots of them grubbing for food so they mostly had their heads buried in the grass. The cubs are still so small they can barely be seen. Little brown spots moving through the grass until they come to a clearing or stand up to see what’s going on. Boy are they cute!

I’m posting some images on my website and I have some pretty good video clips I’ll be sharing soon.

 

Cal