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Humans have lived in Alaska for thousands of years too. The bears and humans co-exist nicely there. The bears are not limited in their access to their normal feeding grounds. There are many rules in place to keep everyone safe and the bears undisturbed. 👍

Baby is growling at mama!

@@ljsong1 Awe 🥰 Baby hungry!!!

@@CorsoLady I think you may be right!!! Female bear, white patch, cute ears, dark legs, and that cute face! I admit I was a little too close to the situation to think clearly about it! Great eyes!! Thanks for catching that! It's interesting for me, because 901 is the bear I keep running into year after year, though usually by the campground/beach, and only 1 time at the Falls. I wasn't expecting to see her there, but your ID seems solid!! 🥰

My current comfort level (as a non biologist) is that mid/late September is okay for me, but October is too deep into the woods for my skill and comfort level. I have read the stories about the old, scrawny bears with missing teeth that have attacked and killed people late September/early October. I take those stories to heart! I'm probably more adventurous than the average person, but I'm not looking to commune with the bears or anything silly. I think staying on a trail used by people is important, because you don't want to be any place a bear doesn't expect you to be! I also get a lot of advice from the rangers there, and I ask LOTS of questions. I won't walk anywhere a ranger says not to go (I get advice ahead of time where to walk that day) and I seek guidance and feedback on each bear encounter I have. I hope that helps! :)

Not here, not really- maybe other places, but Brooks is FULL of spawned salmon in Sept and Oct, and the bears here have never associated people with food. The bears here are also more social with each other than in most places. Many experts believe that is why they accept human presence as well.

@@CorsoLady I would have agreed with you earlier this year, but my trip to Brooks this year changed my perspective a little. On August 5th, a sow and 2 cubs "obtained a large food reward from a group of overnight hikers who were camped along the Dumpling Mountain trail." They closed the trail completely to camping from that point on, and only reopened the trail for day use on 8/14. When I hiked to Dumpling on Sept 20th and 21st, I absolutely brought bear spray with me, where in previous years I would have considered bear spray to be overkill for the area. Around September 25th, a fellow visitor related that a big male started to stalk him for prey (this was near the industrial area where intolerant bears go to escape the people visitors). I got the story from a mutual friend because his plane left before we had a chance to swap stories for the day. This guy had been to other places in Alaska, and had had multiple encounters with bears, including being stalked once before. I believe the story and I believe his interpretation of the story. With 469 attacking 402 a few days later, it's a good idea to keep in mind that either 469 was particularly grouchy this year, or that perhaps 2 bears were particularly grouchy this year. There wasn't as much salmon as in previous years I've been there. And there was a ton of people. While most of the bears are fairly tolerant of people--because yes, they've got lots of other bears to worry about first--it only takes the one bear that's the grouchiest that year for someone to have a bad day.

@@ljsong1 I agree- Mike Fitz said he would never hike Dumpling without bear spray on a Live play by play. I think there is definitely a distinction between bears at Brooks and Brooks trails and Bears not. Sorry I didn't make that clear. I'd bet 469 has not been on the Brooks Falls trails. I heard about the closure, and the hazing of 307- humans really mucked up Brooks in my opinion. Some visitors stood on the Riffles platform and yelled at 903 Gully until he bluff charged the platform!

@@CorsoLadyhumans are always the problem unfortunately 😢

Thank you for the compliment! People go up there hoping to get a bear encounter, of course, but you can never know what it will look like or how you'll react until it's really right in front of you! 😅 I'm glad it worked out well! 😊😊

Thank you! That's actually a fairly typical encountour at Katmai near Brooks Camp. I'm glad the rangers give good guidance about what to do when you encounter a bear and I'm glad I listened enough that this encounter ended well. I was definiately nervous though!!

@@Blickooo My dad put the fear of God into me when I was young, said if I didn't take care of my teeth I'd turn out like some of my relatives who had none. O.O So, I'm grateful for that bit of parenting, and I'm grateful for the health I still have. :)

Thank you!! :)