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.