Honestly, there isn’t much that I am afraid of in nature. Some people are afraid of spiders or snakes and other creepy crawly things. I’m not. Never have been. In fact I love all critters large and small, creepy and crawly or cute and fuzzy. That is just who I am. However that is not to say that I don’t have respect for some animals. And in the case of the Grizzly Bear I have great deal of respect for both its size and power.
This week I was reminded of just how much respect I have for these huge land predators. Flanked by two wildlife photographer colleagues, we took a trip to Yellowstone National Park in search of wolves and grizzly bears. We were not disappointed by either one.
Late October and early November is not the usual time to visit our nation’s first National Park, however if you are a wildlife photographer it is one of the best. There are good and bad aspects of going at this time of year. One thing in the good column is there are no tourists so you feel like you have the entire park to yourself. On the bad side, the weather can be a bit challenging. We had snow just about every day and the temperatures were often in the single digits at night with strong biting winds.
So with snow falling and wintery conditions as the backdrop, we had the chance to observe and photograph about 15 grizzly bears. As you can image they are magnificent and powerful animals which require much respect. The trick is to get close enough to the bears to get high quality, professional images without being killed and eaten. Which, come to think of it, is always a good goal.
In late fall and early winter all birds, including the Grizzly are in a condition known as hyperphagia which translate to “eats a lot”. They will spend nearly every waking hour feeding in order to consume enough calories to put on enough body fat to fuel them through the winter during hibernation. This is very serious business for the bears. The ramifications of not putting on enough fat is they will be force out of hibernation prematurely at a time of year when no food is available.
Grizzly bears are true omnivores. For Grizzly bears this means eating copious amounts of green grass along with healthy proportions of meat. They eat so much grass that they often look like cattle grazing in the fields. Their heads are down to the ground and they are munching away on as much grass as possible. At other times the griz will hunt voles. These are small mammals that live just under the earth’s surface in tunnels. Grizzlies will spend many hours tearing up the sod to expose the voles. We spent countless hours watching the bears peal back huge amounts of sod. When the voles would scatter the griz would pounce and grab them.
Watching this “mousing” activity through a long telephoto lens brings the image of the bear up close and personal. So much so that it was at times a bit frightening. These huge lumbering bears would slowly peal back the sod then suddenly with the reactions of a cat spring to one side or the other and run after a vole with such speed and accuracy it was startling. They no longer looked like a slow carefree bear but rather more like the skilled predator they actually are.
Even thought plants make up about 80-90 percent of their diet, meat is an import part of their overall diet. This explains why we found several grizzly bears following around the wolf packs. Each day when the wolves would head out to hunt a single grizzly would follow. The wolves are so much faster and have a specific agenda in mind when they strike out. The griz just puts its nose to the ground and follows the tracks of the wolves. If the wolves are lucky and make a kill the griz eventually shows up and tries to steal a bit to eat. I find this to be an amazing relationship and one that I would like to spend more time studying.
One on one a wolf would have no chance against a 800 pound Grizzly Bear but a pack of wolves can successfully defend their kill from a single griz. But at some point the bellies of the wolves will be full and they will need to return to feed their pups leaving the carcass for the hyperphagia griz. Until next time…
Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com