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Posted by Granite Head (209.252.105.57) on 13:51:59 07/14/12
In Reply to: To follow up on what Ballpark pointed out below posted by Granite Head
Hayden has yielded pretty good grizzly-watching in recent years. Last year we enjoyed watching grizzly sow known as "Cranky Bear" (I think she got that moniker when she huffed at some photographers that were crowding her. They're lucky she didn't do anything more than that, as one of the other grizzly sows in the vicinity, who killed one and ate part of another person before being captured and euthanized, did last year). CB had two nice looking COYs in June 2011, and they were back this year.
From the overlook, using binocs, we could see there was a large herd of cow elk (doubtless with calves bedded down in the sage and in the trees above) high on the ridge across the river. All of a sudden Mama bear, with the two kids in a straight line behind her, charged out of the trees and into the elk herd, scattering the poor cows in all directions. But she wasn't really serious as she didn't bother to pursue any of them. After the "chase" she led the cubs gradually downslope and to the river while the distraught elk gathered and retreated into the woods.
I could see through my binocs that she wanted to come across the river but she disappeared for a few minutes, only to reappear somewhat down stream, her big brown head floating above water, turned backwards so she could keep a close eye on the cubs, who were about 50 feet behind her, two littler brown heads floating toward the north in the fast current. She picked a spot to get out of the water, I couldn't quite see the kids follow her, I would have loved to have seen them shake off!
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