There are few animals that I’ve spent as much time with as I have Bears. Backpacking through the Rocky Mountains, I see them often. Traveling to Yellowstone or Grand Teton National Parks always seems to offer some opportunities for observation or photography and my time spent in Alaska each summer allows me to literally surround myself by these amazing animals. Given all my time spent with these misunderstood giants, I’ve seen some pretty amazing behavior. Large bears wrestling and fighting, bears fishing for salmon, bears playing, bears with beautiful backgrounds and I’ve even had a mother bear drop her cubs off right in front of my feet to babysit while she had a few moments of relaxation to herself. Yes, I’ve seen some pretty amazing behavior over the years. But there is always new behavior to see and photograph, and this day yielded one of those very opportunities.

Sitting on a river bank, I watched the opposite shoreline as four bears, a mother and three cubs, ate fish after fish. This was a really good mother, she would pull out fish and distribute them to her older cubs, making sure everyone was well fed. I’ve watched bears fish countless times before, but I still had never seen cubs pull out their own, live fish from the chilly water. Yes, I’d watched them attempt the feat on multiple occasions, but they were always unsuccessful.

I enjoyed myself as I watched and photographed this cute family of four. The cubs offered some nice poses as they patiently waited for mom to deliver the next fish. Cubs are curious creatures, constantly exploring their surroundings and figuring out how the big world around them works. As I looked on, I saw one cub watch mom pull another fish out as it simultaneously examined a rock on the river bank by rolling it over. Suddenly, it stopped what it was doing and gingerly stepped into the water. Struggling to see into the moving river, it spent some time doing what it has seen mom do so many times before, it patiently waited and watched for movement. Catching sight of something, it stepped forward again, reached down into the flowing water and pulled out its very own, wriggling salmon. What a catch!

I sat back and watched this bear cub enjoy its freshly caught, well deserved meal. This cub had just taken an important step in life. After watching mom so many times before, it had repeated the behavior and was now relishing the reward. Nature really is outstanding!