Free Great Bear Rainforest by Patti Wheeler, Keith Hemstreet

nothing, is totally mesmerizing. I just wish I had my video camera with me. This footage would be epic, but as a rule you only bring the essentials on a search and rescue mission, so I’m just resting against the rocks and taking it all in.
Wyatt
    9:52 AM
    Looking through the binoculars gave me a good idea of just how big a grizzly can be. The mother bear’s paws were probably the size of a kid’s baseball mitt. Her claws were every bit as impressive, extending three full inches from her paw. She was lean, with strong muscular legs that bowed out slightly at the lower half. Her coat was long and light brown. Her two cubs had slightly darker coats and were probably a third her size.
    We were about to continue our hike when we noticed the mother’s attention turn upstream. All of a sudden she looked disturbed, snorting and nodding her head. Following her line of sight, I saw why. A massive male grizzly had lumbered out of the woods and was crossing the stream. Sometimes the strongest male grizzlies will attack and kill the cubs of other males, a survival instinct that ensures its genes carry on the grizzly bloodline, and not the genes of a weaker male.

    Mother grizzly assessing threat of male
    The mother grizzly was agitated by the approaching male. He was definitely a threat to the cubs. She knew this and as soon he came across the stream the mother bear charged.
    Both bears went up on their hind legs, swinging their immense paws at one another. Even though she was smaller, the female fought hard and seemed to be holding her own. Then the male caught her under the jaw with a powerful blow. She fell backward into the water, rolled onto her side, and struggled to get back to her feet. The male ran after the cubs.
    “Run!” Gannon yelled to the cubs. “Run!”
    The cubs didn’t need to be told. They saw the male bear coming and took off for the cover of the woods.
    “Go! Go! Go!” he kept shouting.
    “Shut up, Gannon!” I said. “You’re going to attract the male’s attention and then he’s going to come after us!”
    “Sorry,” Gannon said. “I can’t help it.”
    Again on her feet, the panicked mother ran after them. When the male stopped just short of the forest, she attacked him again. Even more ferocious than the first attack, the mother was willing to fight to the death to protect her cubs.
    Gannon was like a diehard boxing fan cheering on his favorite heavyweight fighter.
    “Give it to him, mama bear!” he whispered through clinched teeth. “That’s it! Don’t let him get your babies! Show him who’s boss!”
    This time the male wanted none of it. He knocked the mother away with another hard jab before walking back across the creek. The mother limped along the edge of the forest looking for her cubs, growling into the woods in the hope that they would hear her call. I started to worry that she would never find them. If the cubs got lost in the forest, their chance of survival would be slim. Then, suddenly, the cubs appeared at the far end of the sedge field. The mother ran to them and they all tumbled around in the grass. I honestly don’t know that I’ve ever seen such a happy reunion. The bear’s affection, I think, is further proof that certain animal species really do experience love.
GANNON
    MID-MORNING
    Not wanting to cross paths with the grizzlies, we hiked in the opposite direction and followed the path along the shoreline and had been going for about an hour or so when we found Mom and Dad’s tender anchored in shallow water just off a sandy beachhead. Oh, man, seeing their boat rocking back and forth in the cove gave me a lump in my throat and a knot in my stomach. I took this huge breath and yelled out as loud as I could:
    “Mom! Dad! Can you hear me?”
    I kept this up until I was hoarse.
    There was no response.
    Wyatt and I waded into the cold water to check out the boat. All of the supplies were gone. So were the keys. It was totally empty, which makes us think they came ashore,