A grizzly is no doubt one of the world’s most respected animals. After watching lots of coastal brown bears, lots of interior grizzlies, and even more black bears, I have to say an interior grizzly is the top of my list for captivating animals. The interior grizzly is a scrappy version of the coastal brown that happens to live in areas that don’t get salmon runs. Therefore their body size on average is much smaller, 350lbs to 500lbs with some getting up to 700lbs. Brown bears average about 800lbs and many get up above 1,500lbs!
We happened to be out on guide training, which is one of my favorite times of year as we have some of our best bear and wolf sightings and often natural predation on bison calves may take place. As we headed out the east entrance of Yellowstone to get some Rocky Mountain Oysters (guide tradition), we ran into this grizzly bear on our way back in. There were only about 10 cars on sight which made for nice viewing and less animal stress and that’s always a good combination.
This boar (male) grizzly was one of the better sightings I had all year! Take a look at his right ear (our left), its nearly gone from fighting with other males over territory and sows (females). This boar is no doubt in his prime and ready to take on anything and you can see it in his eyes. Here he lumbers across the snow next to Yellowstone Lake and slowly took his time at his pace, not holding up for cars, no schedule, just doing his thing.
As wildlife tour guides we were all pretty much glued to the windows and acting like full on tourists as we usually don’t get to be in that position, so its really fun when we are! – Adam Lackner, BrushBuck Wildlife Tours