I've been involved with grizzly/brown bear research projects in the Susitna Basin, SE Alaska on Chichagof Island, and in Russia. Very interesting critter.

Interior grizzly on the Susitna/Talkeetna River. Helicopter darted.



I've always liked the ivory-colored claws.



Surly interior grizzly. Susitna River, Alaska.



Brown bear family at Angoon, Alaska dump. Admiralty Island.



Nice adult male brown bear, again on Admiralty Island.



Collaring brown bears on Chichagof Island, Alaska.



More brown bear collaring on Chichagof Island, Alaska.

Very cool pictures! Thank you for sharing. Is there much of a difference between the American grizzly, and the Russian grizzly?

Thank you Jack for sharing these great pictures with us , I for one must admit I'm more than a little jealous of you to have worked on and seen so many animals for me the grizzly bears would've been the top or darn close to it !

I'm sure it was never a one and done encounter with some of them did you ever work on or with a older age class bear that was older than most and if so was it a sow or boar ?

Then which had the need to go traveling and covered a lot of country so to speak ?
Allan

Thanks Allan. Oldest bear, that we had aged, was a 28-yr-old male from Chichagof Island. They really don't travel much, being on an island. Interior grizzlies, however, will easily go 500 miles in a short time, going back "home" after they've been moved (to increase the moose survival).

Jack

That is a dream job!!! Thank You for sharing the pictures and your story.

Thank you Jack for the answer , I can only imagine how the bears have trails worn down into the ground in some places that are popular spots for fishing or berries .

Where there any variables between the bears from a island to inland that surprised you or are they similar in behavior ?
Thank you in advance .
Allan

Great stuff, amazing experiences.

Robert -
The Alaskan varies so much from Kodiak and the Peninsula to the Arctic. I only dealt with Russian brown bears from pretty far south in Premorskiy. I've heard that Kamchatka Peninsula bears can get pretty big. Based where I was, they are about like Alaska bears from the islands of southeast.

Allan - the bears tend to step in the exact same footprints from previous bears, so they pound down the same spots. After years of this, the trails become obvious, and each "footprint" is a perfect spot for a footsnare.Makes trapping them pretty straightforward.

Island to island they seemed similar. I only looked closely at bears from the ABC islands (Admiralty, Baranof, Chichagof)

Jack

Thank you very much for sharing. Those claws are absolutely stunning.

I am always fascinated by (and not a little bit jealous of) your amazing photo diaries. What adventures you have been on!

Thank you again, for sharing.

I have seen grizzles in the wild many times and very interesting to watch and see them.

x2

Thank you, Sly. There's been some fantastic adventures. Through many years, I tried to avoid becoming a "bigwig" in a regional office and I was content to be a lowly field biologist. Never made much money, but sure loved the work.

Jack

Thanks for sharing and love your adventures......jk

Enjoy your history and work, always, Jack. Always like that shot of you singing the lullaby to that sleeping bear. A young Sam Elliot you were, back then.

What can you tell us about their diet. How much predation to criters do they actually do ?

The SE Alaska studies and the Russian stuff, we didn't look at diet, but I can say that the ABC islands bears ate mostly salmon during the late summer/early fall season. In the Susitna/Talkeetna,we were doing a moose calf mortality study, and yes, the grizzlies were responsible for very high mortality on the moose calves (neonates less than 1 month old).

I've not seen that painting before, Sharon. I like it. The bear and the wolves are wonderful (and tells a cool story), and I particularly like the Gulo tucked in the perimeter.

Thank you, Jack . I did this a few months ago , for an article in Trappers Post , a trapper who's line is in the ANWR . He describes the predators who clean up on the dogfish run every year. I wanted something to include more than just one predator, so I thought this very real scenario would suffice. And, as usual, the gulo wins the argument very often.

great info and pic, gulo, and an incredible painting Sharon, thank you both for sharing

Very nice

Great pictures as always! Thanks for sharing. I assisted with a Moose capture project here in Voyageurs NP probably 20 years ago. It appears that the MD500D is the ACETA machine of choice.

160 -

Indeed, the 500D is my ship of choice for most work. The r-22 or R-44 (Robinson) piston is better for ungulates at lower elevations. I will use the 500D because of the maneuverability and more so, because I have a pilot with a 500-D that I trust implicitly.

Jack

Same on the mainland in N SEAK, as the ABC Islands. It’s kind of cool to contemplate how many bears may have placed their feet in those tracks.

The photos are cool. The dump bears I always feel bad for. That’s not how they are meant to live. But the viewing opportunity at the dumps in the smaller communities is nearly a sure thing.

There used to be quite a few high time 500 drivers around and most were VERY good. You couldn't get me on a Robbie even at gunpoint. When the drivebelt breaks on my Tundra I have to walk home. When it breaks on the Robbie you will just wish you were walking.

The time I spent in AK, I enjoyed hunting grizzlies the most. I like sitting and glassing with my 15 x 60 Doctor glasses miles and then coming up with a plan on getting within good shooting range. Up the Steese Highway four of us sat glassing one morning, at 0830 I spotted a grizzly bear. My BIL and I headed after it. about a half hour into the stalk I could see the thermals were switching with the warm up. We headed back up hill and drove up the road a couple miles and went up over the top above the bear. Thee was benches all the way to the bottom and we would stop and glass on every bench. From the top I had glassed up something that looked white and out of place. I kept looking at it, trying to figure out what it was. I was glassing over a mile and could not tell. Every time I got down to a new bench I would look at the white thing. When we were just over half way down the hill I* saw a flock of snow birds go through my glasses while I was looking at the white thing. It looked like they were over the white thing. Right after the birds went by a hind leg and foot stuck straight up in the air from the white thing. I had the bear spotted from the top and just figured out the white thing was it. We kept moving down one watching and the other moving. When we were about a quarter mile the bear got up and moved toward us and went out of sight into the bottom. I told my BIL we were not moving until we knew where the bear was. After about a half an hour I spotted the top of the bears head about 300 yards away. We move up to a small hump putting us about 250 yards and the bear worked his way up feeding on blue berries into full sight. My BIL shot and the bear spun in circles. IT ran quartering to us, down hill. I told my BIL to let him come and about 150 yards he stopped stood on this hind legs and turned to face us. I shot him between his right front leg and ribs angling to the hind left leg. It took him off his feet, and both back feet were sticking straight up. They sunk down slow and we never saw him again. After a wait and watch of a half hour, we head down and he was not there. We never saw him move much less leave. I went to the creek bottom and found where he crossed it and started tracking him up the other side. Once I got to where he was when I shot there was spots of blood as big as a saucer and bigger ever six to eight feet. I tracked him about 50 yards in thick alder and came into a small opening and he was laying on his back spread eagle. I stood and watched him a while and had my BIL come over. He had been off to my right 10-15 yards and I never saw him until he came toward me. It was thick. We shot the bear at 1100 My BIL and one two we left on the hill and the other one we left and BIL. The bear was a six year old male. In both pictures you can see how with the right light he looks white.

Checkout the face on this one from last May. I've never seen one quite like it. 10' 7" BTW.

Dang, Waggler. That bear looks like an oversized Newfoundland!

Neat bear, Wagg. Me thinks he'd do pretty well in a fuglybear contest.

Jack

Aaaannnndddd Ken hits it outta the park, again!

Post of the year!

Bravo!!

Awesome.Congrats

I don't really trust anything other than the 500D.....and a good pilot.
Did you ever fly with Tony Reece? He owned and operated a 500D out of Darrington Washington, HiLine Helicopters. He was a legend in the Pacific Northwest. The first time he flew for me was in 1981; the last time just a few years ago shortly before cancer got him in his 80's.

Jack thank you again for answering my questions . the Grizzly bears are showing up more frequently than ever before , the last I heard about was a adult grizzly with 3 sub adult cubs north of town roughly 17 miles away from the house .

Mike I agree grizzly bears have always looked way out of place when they're digging through a garbage dump .

Sharon that's quite a picture !

Allan

Great thread folks. By the way Jack, great book you authored. Couldn't put it down.

Waggler -

I heard of Tony Reese but never flew with him, alas. I always imported Rick Swisher from Fairbanks. Nobody knows wolves like Rick. I've refused to fly with anyone else.

Jack

Barren ground grizzlies make me nervous when I had to work in their territory. Their coat colour is perfect camouflage in a spring time setting. At least polar bears wave a white flag !
My experiences was near Tuktoyaktuk NWT in the 1980's working on whitefish migration on the small ponds south of there. When you can put both your size 12 boots in a paw print....you take notice. When you have been tagging fish all day......a change of clothes was always left at the tagging station.
More and more have been showing up on the coastal area in Manitoba, with the advent of seasonal tail cameras left out.

The last plains grizzly take in Manitoba was in 1850's that there is a record of during a bison hunt near the Peace Gardens of Manitoba/North Dakota area. There was a skull of one found in a cave that it had fallen into sometime around 4000 bp. It was massive is size to todays bear standards.

What do those things smell like?

A bear. I am not kidding.

LOL
I realize that, but I don’t even know what a bear smells like. I have never been close to one.
When you gut a deer there is an odor. I don’t find it offensive but it is a strong odor.
So does a bear stink? Do they have an odor that’s offensive?
Coyotes stink, do bears?

I've shot bears, both blacks and grizz,,that smelled of fish or rotten meat they'd been rolling in. I've also had them very clean with absolutely no smell. I thiink normally they're not strinky, like a coyote or a skunk is.


Jack

LOL

As you touched on, species normally have a unique smell to them. Bears aren’t offensive smelling to me. The one exception would be the way bears smell from being on salmon streams in the fall. That was a bit much, with a couple bears shot that I helped with.

There have been times while afield that we could defiantly smell a bear, but not ever see one.

Here is a question for the biologists and historians.
Why are there no grizzlies in eastern, boreal, boreal, sub arctic Canada? It sure looks like suitable habitat.

Now that's FUNNY!!

As I have stated there are Barren ground grizzlies that have been on trail cameras. feeding on seals or white whales washed up as food source
they are travelling the Hudson Bay coast line in the non winter months. The furthest east they have gone is the top base of James Bay on the coast just in the past 5 years
there have been several taken just north of Thompson around 56*N latt. that is boarder line boreal/sub alpine habitat.250 miles inland from Churchill Mb.

Boco's line is just 100 miles south of that area they were seen last year

Have you ever skinned a samon eating bear, Gulo? Yuck! Ever eaten any grizzly meat. In western Alaska salmon country, yuck again. Even spring bears.
How does a state game management agency KNOW how many bears live in a certain area? Short of an expensive large scale collaring effort I think they don't! Area bio and region 5 supervisor in unit 22 up here seem to think they know. They have a quota for brown bear harvest in 22C.

Dude, do you think that the Department manages them down here for the maximum sustained yield?

The brown bears in SE are managed for viewing and a ADFG savings account. There isn’t a biological concern that necessitates 1 bear every four years.
Prove me wrong…

You're still 1 every 4 down there? Most of the mainland is 1 a year and 2 per year in several places. You can sell the hides in the 2 per year areas!

Yep, ABC’s and most of SE Mainland is one every four.

I've skinned and tried to eat grizzly meat where the diet was mostly salmon. I agree with you completely. Just about gag a maggot. I've tried eating half a dozen interior grizzlies that were not eating fish and don't particularly like them either.

ADF&G can get an idea of popln trend by looking at harvest statistics. However, they can't tell what the population is. For that, you are correct; they need to do an expensive, large-scale population survey. I know of no alternative. Even then, it's usually not a census (census means they count them all). Rather, it's a population estimation. There's a difference.

Wrangler I have no idea about what the Boone and Crocket score on that beast you killed But I WOULD SAY IT IS !00 ON SIZE AND THE SAME ON APPEAREANCE That would be 100% awesome based on it's size and another !00 % x the square root or pi based on its amazing coat both for it's color and it.s texture Definity unique
And that is why we hunt You never know what Mother Nature may have n store for us If we just get out and get after what we are looking That is really some kind grizz What a truly amazing critter you bagged

Then there is the winter bears!

Now that HAD to be a government project..............

Gulo I worked for a small family owned company for almost 40m years It did not pay all that well but they where flexible with how you could use your vacation During the last 15 or so years I got 4 TO 6 weeks of vacation My starting time was either 5 AM or 6 AM and most days I was finished at 2 PM tat gave me4 a lot of hunting and trapping time in the f afternoon The jog it self was usually rather hectic an fast paced but I was accustomed to it being that way so it did not bother me And my skills fit the job pretty well so it was a good fit On a good day I would sometimes say I do not believe they pay me to do this All that to say you seem to have found away to do what you love and love what you do And that fit has benefited you of course It is what a job is supposed to do At the same time it has allowed many of us t see and learn much about many things that we never would have been exposed excerpt for your vast amazing experience Thanks for sharing it with all of us

paid for by the oil companies on pre-impact environmental project. The drilling slug ( bentonite) that is left over in very high in heavy metals and toxic to the young fry.
That area has a very high concentration of natural gas deposits in the formation below