Our final visit to the beach in Kukak Bay turned out to be the most exciting one.
As we approached the shore, we could see "Eyebrows" on the edge of the meadow. The skiff dropped us off on the beach and returned to the ship.
He was feeding on the sedge grass with spectacular scenery behind him.
We sat and watched as he went about his daily routine.
After a while, he lay down for a nap.
Megs also did the same. -O
He just lay there snoozing away.
Eventuallt, the skiff returned and pulled up on the beach behind us. As the engine went into neutral, the water pump was still running and water was dripping into the sea. To a bear, this sounded like another bear urinating on his patch. A direct challenge! Eyebrows looked up immediately to locate his adversary.
On not seeing another bear, he looked around to locate the source of the noise. The skiff was directly behind us.
He stood up and started to "Cowboy Walk" - bowed, stiffened legs with a swaggering gait.
He began to urinate profusely in reply to the challenge.
Then contunued his Cowboy Walk display.
As he approached towards us, the rest of the group backed off, but I was so engrossed in this, I remained to take photos, not realising that I was the only one left. -O
"Yup, claws look sharp enough."
At this point, I realised that I was a little too close and started to back off as Brad came to stand by me and we backed off low and slow and got into the skiff.
To be perfectly honest here, I never felt threatened by this bear at all. He was looking for the source of the percieved threat and we were simply between him and the "threat." It could have turned nasty if he had charged the skiff, as we were in the way, but he was searching for another bear and could not see one anywhere. I think he was simply displaying in the hope that the other "bear" could see him and would wander away without challenging him further.
It was exciting to witness nevertheless.
-O
)
