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Bob and his brother Page 3 of 3
The next evening at low tide a few more bears had caught on to the fact that the fish had arrived. We found out later that it wasn’t the salmon run, but rather a smaller run of Dolly Varden trout. We headed down to the river at low tide to see what kind of fishing action we would have today. I think there were about five or six bears in total out there, and I soon saw that both Betsy and Bob were amongst them. Bob’s skills hadn’t diminished at all since last night, and we saw him go charging after a fin and pounce, successful! He was fishing out further towards the ocean and the tide line so we couldn’t see him real well. But I did notice that as he caught the fish, another bear, slightly smaller and slightly darker than Bob, was running straight for Bob and his fish. He charged Bob, and the unmistakable, deep roar of a pissed off bear went rattling across the flats. Bob was screaming at this bear, but in the process of roaring he dropped the fish that was in his mouth. This other bear then reached out his right paw, snatched the fish from under Bob’s face, and ran off with it. Bob didn’t pursue, but rather went back to the water. Lucky for him, he caught another fish almost right away, and ran off with it to eat it. He ate fast, but the darker bear once again pursued Bob and stole what was left of this fish as well.
As the evening progressed, both these two bears came up stream and closer to where we were sitting. We had a great spot to watch the action – sitting in the sand off to the side of a small sand bar that jutted out into the mouth of the river. Both Bob and this other bear were standing on the sand bar scanning for fish. The first thing I noticed was that this thief bear looked almost identical to Bob. They were the exact same body shape, except Bob was a bit taller and bigger. Otherwise, they were shaped the same with identical silhouettes. This bear also had the same blond radar ears as Bob, placed directly on the top of his head. Their muzzles were the same shape, length and contour, and I began to feel pretty confident that these two bears were brothers. That might explain why Bob gave up his fish so easily, and also perhaps why this bear felt so confident pushing Bob around. Bob’s brother didn’t have any success catching fish on his own. I wondered if perhaps his fishing strategy was to mooch off of his brother. In contrast to every other bear fishing that night, Bob was the only one consistently catching anything. A few other bears were catching fish here and there, but they seemed to wait in the water for long stretches of time between fish. Bob, on the other hand, seemed to catch a fish within minutes of trying, and he caught one fish after another. Maybe Bob has coped for years, or his whole life, with giving up half his fish to his bullying brother, and has compensated by being proficient enough to catch twice as many fish as he can eat.
The next morning we headed to the river for any low tide fishing. Both Bob and his brother were there, repeating the same routine of Bob fishing, and his brother stealing. Eventually, both brothers got full because they waded off to a smaller braid of the river and began to wrestle. The two bears spent over a half an hour chasing each other down in the stream, tackling each other, rolling, biting, and kicking. They appeared to be having a ball. But what was interesting as we watched them for a while was that Bob’s brother was always on top. He was always the one initiating the play fighting, always appearing the aggressor. He would stomp forward, and Bob would back up. He would rear up on his back legs and shove Bob with his front paws. Eventually he started jumping on top of Bob’s back. At one point he even climbed all the way on top of Bob, until Bob collapsed on the ground underneath his brother’s girth. It appeared clear who had the more dominant personality in this relationship, and it certainly wasn’t Bob. Whether fishing or play fighting, it appeared that Bob’s brother was dominating the relationship. Irregardless, they both seemed to be having lots of fun. Seeing two adult males in such an intimate interaction, clearly at play with one another, makes me question why grizzly bears are usually categrozied as “loners” . While it is clear that cubs, like human children, play to develop social and physical skills, I’ve quite often seen adult bears, of both sexes, playing vigorously. Perhaps like us humans they play for the sheer joy of it, for the thrill of movement with another. Anyone with a dog or a cat knows they play for fun, and adult grizzly bears, at least on the coast where food sources are abundant, seem no different. The physical and social interactions between adult grizzly bears are complex and varied, and I hope to come to understand them more in the coming years.
© 2008 Jessica Teel |
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