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Grizzly Bear Bob Page 2 of 3
Bob proceeded to chase down and catch every fish that he saw. He was an expert, and made it look so easy. He would wait patiently, scanning back and forth across the water with his eyes, sometimes rearing up on his back legs for a better view. He would sprint after a fish that he saw, charging through the water directly in front of where we sat. We could hear and feel the tremendous weight of the water being moved by his large legs. It was incredible! The sound of his feet pounding through the current was so loud and powerful. We couldn’t believe that no other bears had joined him, since judging by Bob’s success, the fish had arrived en masse. But Bob had the whole place to himself, well, except for the eagles and gulls.
The gulls were going nuts, flocking around Bob as he was eating, squawking and flapping, hoping for a bite of meat. They fought viscously for any scraps, entrails, and blood he left behind when he went charging back into the water after eating a fish.
Eventually, it seemed, Bob got full. He sat on the river bank next to a fish he just caught, but stopped eating it after a few bites. It lay dead in the sand next to him, and the gulls were walking right up to Bob making intimidating noises at him. Bob didn’t want to eat the fish, but he didn’t want to give it up to the gulls either. He stared down the gulls, refusing to move. At one point he started to walk away, but when he saw the gulls descend down on his hard earned fish, he ran back to the fish scaring them off in a loud flutter. Bob sat down on his rump and glared at the gulls that were inching their way closer to the fish.
Towards the end of the evening one other bear finally wandered over to the river. She made her way towards us on the flats. When she got near the first thing I noticed was how skinny her shoulders looked. She reminded me of another older looking bear we had seen recently called Clint. Like him, her frame was full grown, but her limbs did not look filled out, but rather emaciated. Her front legs and shoulders were thin for her body size, and at first glance I thought she was a really skinny bear. As she walked by us and I could see her profile I was surprised to see that she was actually quite fat. She had a humungous belly that looked even a bit distended, stretched at the skin, like she had just had a huge meal. Her skinny arms made her look a lot thinner than she actually was. I guessed that she was most likely a really old female bear, and I was starting to recognize that the older bears have muscle atrophy and weight loss in their limbs. Despite her age she was an unusual looking and gorgeous bear. Her head was unusually shaped, square and blocky. She strode by us with the utmost confidence, and an imposing, calm grace, her body casting a perfect reflection in a large puddle of water.
She walked purposefully out into the river water and set up camp in the middle of the current, staring upstream, waiting for a fish to jump. The afternoon and evening had flown by, and the sun was beginning to set, the light turning golden and soft. We called this older bear Betsy, and she glowed yellow in the failing sunlight that bounced off the water where she stood. She looked so regal, and wide, so strong and confident out there in the streams of water. We left the two bears there to keep fishing. We waded through the river, upstream from where they were fishing, staggering through the current and falling over our own limbs to get to shore. We headed across the mud flats to camp. Glancing over my shoulder a good distance away, I saw Betsy go charging upstream, dive, and come up with a fish in her mouth. Betsy got a fish, I yell to John, glad she caught one too, and glad that she would eat meat tonight.
© 2008 Jessica Teel |
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