[MP-Ryan]

I was paging through some of the pictures I've taken this summer from the field and found one in particular well-worth sharing.  This shot was taken from the [relative] safety of our truck, and the subject is about 20 feet away at the moment the photo was taken.  S/he got within about 15 feet of the truck before we scared it off.

For those wondering, this is a young grizzly, roughly 2-3 years old.  What we believed to be its mom was with it, and I have several shots of her but this is by far the most entertaining photo of the bunch (and indeed, the summer).  The photo was taken in May, in the foothills of the Alberta section of the Rockies.

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[Black Wolf]

Heeeey Macarena!

[Lorric]

You're very lucky.

[deathfun]

Photogenic bear right there

[StarSlayer]

I think she wants to lick the honey from your hair

[Klaustrophobia]

this looks like it has excellent meme potential.  photoshoppers go to work.

[Luis Dias]

[Fury]

In Finland, bears dance gangnam style.

[An4ximandros]

Grizzly just wants to be a HLPer.

[Nemesis6]

Isn't there something about bears actually being cowards when push comes to shove? I heard that black bears can be scared away or merely stopped in their tracks by loud noises for example.

[MP-Ryan]

Isn't there something about bears actually being cowards when push comes to shove? I heard that black bears can be scared away or merely stopped in their tracks by loud noises for example.

Not necessarily.  Bear behaviour is quite complex (and I don't have time to give a lesson on it), but they have curious, defensive, and aggressive cues that you can watch for.

Black bears are a different kettle of fish from even this relatively small grizzly.  Your typical black bear is in the neighborhood of 200 lbs - smaller than I am - whereas grizzlies can easily reach 500-600 lbs.  predatory grizzly attacks on people are rarer than predatory black bear attacks, though.

[The E]

It's a ****ing Bear. It's bigger than me. I'm not gonna try to agitate it if I can help it. Especially not when there are other bears around that may get the wrong idea about what I'm trying to do.

also

[Al-Rik]

Isn't there something about bears actually being cowards when push comes to shove? I heard that black bears can be scared away or merely stopped in their tracks by loud noises for example.

Not necessarily.  Bear behaviour is quite complex (and I don't have time to give a lesson on it), but they have curious, defensive, and aggressive cues that you can watch for.

Black bears are a different kettle of fish from even this relatively small grizzly.  Your typical black bear is in the neighborhood of 200 lbs - smaller than I am - whereas grizzlies can easily reach 500-600 lbs.  predatory grizzly attacks on people are rarer than predatory black bear attacks, though.

Isn't there the saying that the difference between Grizzly and Black Bear is:
"if you climb up a tree to flee, the Black Bear will climb up, the Grizzly just topples the tree ?"