Guess who we got a close-up of? In the pouring rain.
Actually too close for comfort… She was ranged at 21 yards. A grizzly can cover 50 feet in a second!
This big, sow grizzly bear…
Luckily, she was hungry for berries and not something with a little more protein…
The grizzly bear is a North American subspecies of the brown bear.
These awe-inspiring giants tend to be solitary animals—with the exception of females and their cubs—but at times they do congregate. Dramatic gatherings of grizzly bears can be seen at prime Alaskan fishing spots when the salmon run upstream for summer spawning. In this season, dozens of bears may gather to feast on the fish, craving fats that will sustain them through the long winter ahead.
Brown bears dig dens for winter hibernation, often holing up in a suitable-looking hillside. Females give birth during this winter rest and their offspring are often twins.
Grizzly bears are powerful, top-of-the-food-chain predators, yet much of their diet consists of nuts, berries, fruit, leaves, and roots. Bears also eat other animals, from rodents to moose.
Grizzlies are typically brown, though their fur can appear to be white-tipped, or grizzled, lending them their traditional name.
Despite their impressive size, grizzlies are quite fast and have been clocked at 30 miles (48 kilometers) an hour. They can be dangerous to humans, particularly if surprised or if humans come between a mother and her cubs.
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What she’s hunting for…
The delicious huckleberry!
Vaccinium membranaceum Douglas ex Hooker, known as the black, big, or thin-leaved huckleberry, grows throughout forested areas in Idaho, western Montana, western Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. Small disjunct populations occur in Utah, California, Arizona, and Michigan. This species is sometimes called the globe huckleberry in Montana and some taxonomists identify plants in the eastern Rocky Mountains as Vaccinium globulare Rydberg. In 2000, Idaho designated huckleberries, of which black huckleberry is by far the most common in Idaho, as the state fruit. This species served as an especially important source of food for Native American peoples throughout western North America and the dried berries were used for winter food and trade.
Vaccinium membranaceum is found at elevations between about 2,000 and 11,500 feet, with many productive sites located between 4,000 and 6,000 feet elevation. This tetraploid is commonly found along forest roads and in clear cuts and burns about ten to fifteen years old, often growing among true firs (Abies sp.), hemlock (Tsuga sp.), and bear grass (Xerophyllum tenax Michx.). Vaccinium membranaceumgrows from one to six feet tall and produces flavorful berries up to one-half inch in diameter. Color ranges from glossy or glaucous black to purple to red, with rare white berries. Vaccinium membranaceum is, by far, the most widely commercialized western huckleberry used for fruit and is harvested extensively from the wild.Vaccinium membranaceum is adapted to cool, short seasons and high elevations. When grown at low elevations, the plants often deacclimate during winter warm spells or early spring and are damaged by subsequent freezes. The early-blooming plants are also susceptible to late spring frosts. Vaccinium membranaceum is rhizomatous, has a sparse root system, and mature plants seldom survive transplanting.
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Off in the distance…
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