Quad Squad

This is bear 94 from Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park and Preserve. Bears have to learn almost everything they need to know to be a bear within the first two years of their lives. Sometimes sow bears will keep the litter another year, but the safe bet is two years, if they make it two years. This summer I was excited in hopes of seeing bear 94 and her four cubs. The first day, after putting up my tent, I waited on a platform where I heard she was spotted. I waited there often that year. On a few lucky occasions, she would come out. She would mostly hunt for salmon scraps, rarely trying to fish herself. I did see her flop into the water, leaping from a tree a couple of times to try and shock the fish, but most of the attempted jumps witnessed were unsuccessful. The cubs would follow her up and down the bank, with each pass being more and more frantic than the last. She seemed desperate, but with four mouths to feed in addition to her own, I can see how that could quickly become life or death out there in the wild. My dream opportunity with her and her family was a cuddle puddle of bears, but I took away this image. It's the truth of this sow that summer. When I think of it, I think of those four cubs trying to keep up and that sow doing everything for all of their survival. Bear 94 had a boar take one of her cubs later that fall and over hibernation, returned to Brooks with two of these cubs. Those two cubs stayed with her another whole summer, gaining another year of her teachings and food. Will she den with them again and return to Brooks with them in tow again? I am excited to find out!