The McNeil River
This is an overview of The McNeil River, Alaska where I took the Grizzly Bear photographs that you will see on the website. It was late August, and the bears were feasting and fattening up on the salmon that were returning to the same fresh water, from which they had hatched some 2-1/2 years earlier. They would soon go into hibernation where they fall asleep for several months. Bears are inseminated in the summer, but they have the ability to delay nidation until they find a den site and fall asleep. The impregnated females will bear, without awakening, 1-3 babies. During hibernation, the bear will not eat, defecate or urinate until they awaken the following March or early April! The one pound newborn infants, on their own initiative, will find and feed on the mother's teats, from which they will grow and prosper on her rich milk. When she does awaken, she and the cubs exit the den. She is much thinned down and " Hungry as a bear!" [The McNeil River, Alaska].