A male grizzly bear plods after a female during mating season in Katmai National Park. During May and June male bears will patiently follow females, hoping to mate. Females are often quite intimidated by large males. This pair were walking around and grazing with each other and even stopped to cuddle face to face in the grass.
Archive for the Grizzly Bears Mating Category
A huge male grizzly bear pauses for a bite of grass while pursuing a female grizzly during mating season. This male was really fun to watch. For about a week we saw him plodding along after female grizzly bears. Here’s a photo of him following a potential mate.:
Click here to read more about this grizzly bear couple.
During mating season we watched this beautiful female grizzly being followed by a huge male grizzly for hours. When he fell asleep, she slipped away. When we headed back to camp for the night we witnessed a small male bear approach this female, and immediately mount her. Neither size nor persistence led to the mating, although this young male grizzly bear was so short he kept slipping off the female bear’s back. Read more about the details of this fascinating grizzly bear mating scene by clicking here. It is commonly assumed that the largest male bears mate more often, however we witnessed small, young males mating just as much if not more than the huge male bears.
During mating season, a grizzly bear female’s vagina is sometimes visible. Male bears are seen often sniffing the rear area of female bears. After noticing how visible the vagina may be, I realized that not only the sense of smell – but the sense of vision, may be used by male bears to determine if a female bear is in estrous.