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| " Brutus" is the dominant male in the valley this year. He was the first bear we came across and we were treated to hours of his exhausting perpetual motion. We spied him first chasing away a wolf from the seal carcass that the female had abandoned when Brutus showed his massive frame. Tom estimated him at 1000 lbs and from what we saw it was pure muscle. While we never saw him run, grizzlies have been clocked at 35-40 mph, especially mothers protecting cubs. In the next panel we followed him for about 3 miles as he made his way out the estuary. |
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| After we left him, he was spotted later in the day another 4 miles down the inlet by one of the park rangers, still seeking food and a mate. Then, on the next day around mid-morning on the opposite shore there was Brutus in his perpetual locomotion heading back into the estuary. He had crossed the fjord at some point, about 3/4 of a mile, and now was back with us. We followed him past washed up remains of a rather large spring (king) salmon that had a nasty odor to it, and when he caught a whiff, it must have been pure delight, as he proceeded to sit down in the water and devour the carcass. After his quick snack, he continued on and then with a sniff in the air and a gleam in his eye he waded in and swam to the opposite shore once again. Possibly there was a female somewhere with whom he might conjure up a few cubs. |
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| The claws of a full grown male grizzly are slightly curved and may reach up to 4 inches in length, and can be a deadly blow to any object that is in the path of a swipe. Some final shots of these wonderful bears who gave us the opportunity to glimpse into a window of their lives. |
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