The hulking bear with a plush, reddish-brown coat is shown inspecting the camera and later revealing its massive paws.
Trail-cam footage captured in 2021, showing a massive and beautifully colored grizzly bear in Canada’s Yukon Territory, has been re-posted to reflect a comment that stood out to the camera operator.
“ ‘If I’m going to get eaten by a bear, I want it to be this one’ – my favorite comment ever in relation to this awesome bear,” recalled David Troup of Yukon Wildlife Cams.
The new Facebook post by Troup inspired further commentary regarding the hulking bear and its plush, reddish-brown coat.
“How awesome to know that this magnificent animal is roaming free on earth!” one viewer remarked.
“He looks like a movie bear!” another viewer chimed in.
The footage, which shows the bear inspecting the camera before walking away and revealing its massive paws, is posted below. (Please click here if the video player does not appear.)
During the summer bears roamed the Yellowstone landscape, but weren’t always easy to see. Image will test your spotting skills.
*Editor’s note: A version of this post was published by ForTheWin earlier this year.
Bears in Yellowstone National Park are hibernating, but during the summer they were spread across the landscape and often visible from roads and trails.
But they weren’t always easy to see, and one Montana-based hiking guide used an image he captured from above the Lamar River to test his social-media followers’ spotting skills.
“I’ve been told my more recent ‘Find the Animal Friday’ posts have been way too easy,” Douglas Scott stated via X. “This one is a little more challenging.”
Can you spot the black bear? Photo: Douglas Scott
Scott allowed the use of his image for this post, so we’re also challenging readers: Can you spot the black bear in the images posted above? (Answer below.)
Hint: It’s a difficult quiz and there are several shadows that might be mistaken for the bear.
Scott, who runs The Outdoor Society, told me that he captured the image June 21 “on a perfectly clear day” in the park’s northern range.
“It was definitely a fun spot as my client was amazed I saw it so easily from so far away,” Scott recalled.
His X followers offered several guesses but in the hours after his post only one had pinpointed the bear’s location.
When I guessed, Scott informed me that I had found “the shadow of a tree.”
Another guess was met with the reply: “Unfortunately, you are incorrect. You most definitely found a non-animal shadow though!”
Yellowstone is remarkable in that visitors often see bears up close or in the distance, especially if they’re patient and use binoculars or spotting scopes.
They might also capture a landscape image and later realize that a critter is visible in the image.
In 2023, for example, I was watching bears on one side of a highway and turned to snap an image of a coyote in transit on the other side of the highway.
When I got back to my hotel room and began to inspect my images, I discovered that a smaller animal was visible, paying close attention to the coyote.
As for the black bear photographed by Scott, it’s much easier to spot in a zoomed-in version posted immediately below.
Zoomed-in version shows black bear’s location. Photo: Douglas Scott
Immediately below is an image with the bear pinpointed with an arrow.
Black bear location. Photo: Douglas Scott
As for Yellowstone bears, they’ll begin to emerge from hibernation as early as late March.
Footage shows a grizzly bear playing in the snow, albeit wearily, during hibernation season in Yellowstone National Park.
By now, almost all grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park are denned up for the winter. But that doesn’t mean some won’t venture outside their dens between now and spring.
The accompanying footage, captured by Trent Sizemore, shows a grizzly bear happily – but wearily – rolling on fresh snow in January 2021.
The footage was shared by the U.S. Department of the Interior, which joked: “Are you having trouble losing those unwanted, extra holiday pounds? Then ask your doctor if hibernation is right for you.”
The agency added: “Winter is the time of year in Yellowstone National Park when bears hibernate, although, it’s possible to see one any time of year.”
With another holiday season upon us, and with Yellowstone aficionados wishing the bears a restful winter’s sleep, we’re sharing Sizemore’s timeless clip as a moment of seasonal joy. (Click here if video doesn’t appear below.)
In Yellowstone National Park, a distant view of grizzly bears can be as satisfying as an up-close roadside view – if you can spot them.
–Editor’s note: A version of this post was first published in June 2024, after the author’s annual spring trip to Yellowstone National Park.
In Yellowstone National Park, a distant view of grizzly bears can be as satisfying as an up-close roadside view because it requires a keen eye and the animals are in more of a natural setting.
Can you spot the momma grizzly bear and her three cubs in the image I captured in late May, from a hillside opposite the Lamar Valley? (Answer at the bottom of the post.)
Momma bear was with first-year cubs, or cubs of the year, born during the winter hibernation period. The curious little ones did not stray far from mom while I watched from a distance of 100-plus yards.
During this sighting the bears ascended a hillside opposite the valley after being run off by a bison herd in a meadow surrounded by sagebrush.
(Momma bear was so preoccupied with foraging, with her head down, that she did not seem to notice how closely she was leading her cubs to several bison and their newborn calves.)
The bears were too far for me to capture a detailed image with my 400-millimeter lens, but I’ve attached a cropped version of a different image from the same sighting that shows the bears in more detail.
The bears in the top images used for the quiz are circled below.
A travel writer taking a six-day trip to Spirit Bear Lodge in British Columbia couldn’t believe the encounter her group had with a grizzly.
A travel writer visiting Spirit Bear Lodge in British Columbia experienced a close encounter with a grizzly bear she “still can’t believe” happened.
Sarah Sekula was on a six-day tour at the lodge located in the remote wilderness of the Great Bear Rainforest, home to the Kitasoo Xai’xais people, one of 15 Tsimshian nations that call the rainforest home.
“The Kitasoo Xai’xais people believe that bears are like family members,” Sekula explained in her Instagram post.
And so, they talk to the bears as if they are family, as guide Heather Robinson did when a grizzly came rushing toward her group while chasing fish in a stream.
The grizzly stopped and checked out the group. It was 5-feet away from Robinson, who calmly told the bear, “Oh no, you can’t come this way, OK?”
With no fear in her voice, the bear backed off and then started chasing fish, as seen in Sekula’s Instagram video.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DCMeXKqR75W/
“Guides are so good at what they do,” Sekula wrote on Instagram. “We learned so much about bear behavior. Fascinating and surprisingly not scary!
“You know, you would think it would be nerve racking, but it wasn’t. The bear never showed signs of aggression. Both of our guides were extremely knowledgeable about bear behavior and have never even had to use bear spray.
“I think Heather Robinson could double as a yoga teacher with that sweet and calm voice.”
Footage from Canada’s Yukon Territory shows an extremely plump grizzly bear that seems beyond ready for hibernation.
A trail camera in Canada’s Yukon Territory has captured footage featuring an extremely plump grizzly bear that seems beyond ready for hibernation.
“This rotund grizzly sure knows how to prep for the big sleep that awaits,” David Troup of Yukon Wildlife Cams stated this week via Facebook, in reference to the impending hibernation season. “While not the biggest grizzly I’ve captured on camera, definitely the fattest, which is meant in the most admirable of ways.”
Understandably, Troup’s followers were impressed enough to chime in.
One suggested that the bear is pregnant, to which Troup replied, “Nope, just fat.”
Another remarked that the bear could have been a contender in the annual Fat Bear Week competition that features coastal brown bears of the Brooks River in Alaska’s Katmai National Park.
Another comment: “Great footage, you can see he/she is very content, even looking happy.”
Troup’s reply: “It looks like its eyes are even closed as it walks along.”
The top comment refers to lyrics in the 1978 song by Queen, “Fat Bottomed Girls.” The revised verse: “Fat bottom bears they make this rocking world go round.”
One den discovered two years ago housed a 600-pound grizzly bear and featured a sweeping view of the Idaho forest.
Two years ago the Idaho Department of Fish and Game joked about what grizzly bears consider while choosing den sites for the winter:
“The view of course!”
The remark on Facebook was in reference to a spacious den biologists discovered while searching for a 600-pound grizzly bear’s dropped research collar.
The collar’s signal led them to a high-altitude den site that featured a stunning view of the forest and a distant river or lake.
The accompanying images show the view and IDFG Officer Chris Johnson “enjoying the ample head room inside the bear’s den.”
Officer Chris Johnson at entrance to bear den. Photo: IDFG
(The bear was not present when the collar was retrieved.)
With another hibernation season close at hand, bears will soon stake out potential den sites or reclaim existing sites.
Den utilized by a 600-pound bear. Photo: IDFG
A sampling of facts about bear dens, courtesy of the National Park Service, referring mainly to bears within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which includes Yellowstone National Park:
–Den sites are typically located on north-facing slopes at elevations between 6,500 and 10,000 feet. “This is desirable in greater Yellowstone because prevailing southwest winds accumulate snow on the northerly slopes and insulate dens from sub-zero temperatures.”
–Grizzly bears typically excavate dens in 3-7 days, “moving up to a ton of material.” Chamber floors are covered with spruce boughs and forest debris, ensuring air pockets that help trap body heat. Chambers can measure seven feet in diameter.
–Den site openings are typically just large enough for bears to squeeze through. Small openings become snow-covered more quickly and help keep dens insulated.
–Bears typically enter dens for hibernation by mid-November, but male bears can be encountered outside dens well into December. Bears begin to emerge from their dens in February, but female bears with cubs often remain in or near their dens until late May.
–Bears experience a slower metabolism, and lower respiration and heart rates during hibernation. Their breathing, for example, can slow from 6-10 breaths per minute before hibernation to only one breath every 45 seconds during hibernation.
As for the den featured in the images, it was visited by grizzly bear biologist Jeremy Nicholson and IDFG Officers Johnson and Joe Heald. It’s not clear if the den site has been reused.
Footage from Alberta, Canada, shows a large grizzly bear cub breaking out all the moves while enjoying a good scratch.
Alaska’s Denali National Park on Sunday shared footage showing a grizzly bear “satisfying its itch” by rubbing its back against the bottom of a campground sign.
“While amusing, this video serves as a reminder that the Park is home to many bears and other animals that may be encountered on or near roads and in other front-country areas,” Denali stated via Instagram. “As you travel in the park this shoulder season, enjoy wildlife from a safe distance.”
The clip is reminiscent of footage captured in 2022 by a trail camera operated in Alberta, Canada, by the Help Alberta Wildies Society, which studies wild horses.
The accompanying Alberta clip is a classic because the large grizzly bear cub stands on its hind legs and appears to dance while rubbing against a tree.
It’s made more entertaining by music that transforms from suspenseful to fun and lively once the scratching begins. Click here to view the footage if a video player does not appear below.
A guide has captured an “incredible scene” involving two male grizzly bears fighting near a dead bison in Yellowstone National Park.
A guide has captured an “incredible scene” involving two male grizzly bears fighting over a bison carcass in Yellowstone National Park.
“Drama at the dinner table!” Yellowstone Wolf Tracker exclaimed Thursday via Instagram, adding that a lone wolf closely witnessed the brawl. “907F, of the Junction Butte Pack, looks on as two male grizzly bears fight over the remains of a deceased bison.”
The accompanying footage shows the bears shoving and swiping at each other, exchanging surprisingly swift blows as the wolf remains close to the carcass.
The footage is in three parts on the swipe-through Instagram post. The second and third frames show a more peaceful coexistence between all three animals.
The footage was captured through a spotting scope last week by Yellowstone Wolf Tracker guide Luke Jensen.
According to Yellowstone National Park, 150 to 200 grizzly bears live within park boundaries, while an estimated 965 grizzly bears inhabit the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and northwest Montana.
Grizzly bears and wolves rarely interact with each other except when potential food is involved.
The two men were archery hunting for elk when the bear charged from close range, biting one man and knocking him to the ground.
An archery hunter in Idaho was knocked to the ground and bitten by a grizzly bear Sunday, but he and his partner pulled sidearms and killed the bear.
Both men dialed 911 after the incident. As Monday afternoon, the injured hunter was recovering from non-life-threatening wounds at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.
According to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the hunters were targeting elk west of Henrys Lake in Island Park when the attack occurred.
“Both men were able to utilize their sidearms to shoot the bear, deterring the attack,” Fish and Game explained in a news release.
Conservation officers responded to the scene and determined “that the hunters acted in self-defense during a surprise encounter with the bear from a very close distance.”
Grizzly bears are protected by state and federal law. Killing them while hunting is legal only in self-defense.
Henrys Lake is in the Caribou-Targhee National Park, about 15 miles west of Yellowstone National Park.
–Grizzly bear image courtesy of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game
