Chapter 1: Bearanoia & Disneyesque

Full, high-resolution color images for Chapter 1: Bearanoia & Disneyesque.

1.1: My main study areas in Alaska are marked with white stars: Diving Bear Cove (upper left), Chinitna Bay (center left), Katmai National Park (lower left), Kenai and Russian Rivers confluence (upper right) (Google Earth image).

1.2: Adult male grizzly with fresh claw wounds to his neck.

1.3: This male has scars on his forehead and muzzle, including one beside his right eye.  Eye-side scars are so common that I wonder whether fighting males try to blind each other.

1.4: Embellishment is half the fun of telling hunting tales.

1.5: Bear viewers on the eastern coast of Katmai National Park.  This adult female grizzly is passing by just a few yards in front of them without obvious concern.  This is typical at Katmai where unhunted bears have learned to trust people, and where there is an abundance of nutrient-rich wild foods such as salmon.

1.6: Current and historic distributions of Ursus arctos grizzly/brown bears in North America.  usgs.gov/media/images/historical-and-current-grizzly-bear-range-north-america

1.7: Current and historic distributions of Ursus americanus black/blackie bears in North America. Garshelis, D.L., Scheick, B.K., Doan-Crider, D.L., Beecham, J.J. & Obbard, M.E. 2016. Ursus americanus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T41687A114251609. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T41687A45034604.en. Accessed on 03 February 2023.

1.8: Profiles of American bears. Row 1: Adult male black bear and a two-year old male. Row 2: Adult male brown bears (often darker than females and juveniles) Row 3: Mother brown bear followed by her 2-year-old cub. Row 4: Adult polar bears.

1.9: Juvenile grizzly bear and adult black bear of similar body size. Note the grizzly’s much larger shoulder hump.

1.10: Grizzly bear (left) and black bear (right).  Although the adult black bear was smaller, it was more aggressive and dominated the adolescent grizzly.

1.11: A so-called “glacier” or “blue” color phase of the black bear.  This is a stuffed bear whose photo I inserted against a glacial background.

1.12: Grizzly pelts: “Grizzling” or lightening of hair tips is much more extreme and common for the interior bears (left) than for those on the coast (right), where they are often referred to as “brown bears.”