Grizz are out up here, just got a picture of one that was shot last weekend north of Fairbanks. Anyone seen them out later
I've found their tracks here every month of the year. It does seem like more of them are staying out late, and staying out longer, than they used to here. Could just seem that way because our
population is so much bigger than it used to be though.
It's very common though along my trapline to find them still out and still fishing on up until
Christmas, and sometimes, depending on the salmon run, on in to January.
The sow's and cubs are usually in the den at least by the middle of Nov, and typically it's single bears that stay out late and fish. Just speaking for this area, but Feb is the month of the least activity. I think the ones that come out in Feb and Mar are usually ones that have had their sleep desturbed. I've seen them abandon a den because of recreational snowmachiners "high-marking" right over the den, seen then abandon dens because of seismic blasting, and have seen them shook awake from what I believe was repeated avalanche activity in the canyon they are denned in. Sometimes too they will get flooded out during a chinook if they didn't dig their den right. Anyway, that's just some of the reasons that they might be out wandering around in the snow.
The ones that fish the creeks on up until late Dec-early Jan, are in and out of the water where
there is open leads, and ice builds on their fur until it interfers with their movement. In this picture taken on Jan 1st a couple years ago you can see the bear was having to swing his
back legs out to the side in order to walk, especially on the left side, most likely due to ice build-up making it hard to bend his legs.
