Grizzly Bears...Fishing. Gorgeous PIC

[accadacca]

photography.nationalgeographic.com

[denaliguide]

mcneil or katmai. you can't even imagine what it's like to be there and see this.

[CarpeyBiggs]

mcneil falls. taken from the viewing platform i presume.

[QSD1337]

that's still pretty cool!

[jbravo84]

WOW, what a huge and powerfull family
Nice PIC

[live2ride]

i would love to witness this!

[denaliguide]

while the sow with the 3 cubs is a family, this is somewhat of an artifical enviroment that you see in the photo. the only thing that keeps the other bear from being aggressive is the abundance of salmon in the stream. other than a couple months of the year you would never see this type of behavior being exhibited. bears are usually a solitary animal, and a sow with cubs will try to avoid close contact with other bears.

mcneill river and katmai are the two most familiar places where you can see this type of behavior up close. visits to mcneill are awarded through a lottery system and travel there is expensive, while visits to katmai are merely expensive. there are of course other remote locations which are unrestricted. that being said, you will need a plane to access them, and preferably a guide. the more remote locations are generally seen during a days fishing from one of the area's many fishing lodges. the most bears i have seen in one day is 24 at the head of american creek. the farthest was 400 yards and closest was way too close for comfort.

[Dr. Nebz]

Yeah if you notice all the cubs are behind the sow in that pic. She obviously is not taking any chances. Male Grizzly's will kill cubs with the intention of putting the female back in heat so he can mate with her. It is crazy, but true.