Powerfull Grizzly
He is seen as a visionary and a healer, with supernatural gifts. He is also courageous, endowed with the strength of the warrior and a fearless heart. The animal is emblematic of strength and of the connection with the energy of the Earth. He is revered in many traditions as a powerful totem that inspires those who have the courage to fight against adversity. An animal in contact with the earth and the cycles of nature, he is a powerful guide.
Standing on his hind legs, imposing, the grizzly has a solid reputation for aggressiveness. Yet most of the time, this solitary plantigrade uses his sharp claws and cutting teeth only to dig up roots or pick berries, which he devours for his meals. From one summer to the next, this very intelligent animal remembers precisely where, in the rapids of Canada and Alaska, his best salmon fishing spots are. The grizzly’s sense of smell is so fine that he can smell a dead animal several kilometres around. He then does not hesitate to cross the mountains, the rivers and the forests to find it.
During the winter, the female gives birth to up to 4 cubs in her den. She raises them alone and avoids contact with adult males, which would kill the cubs. They stay with her for at least two years, the time it takes for them to know how to choose their food, where to find it and how to get it. They start hunting for themselves the second summer after their birth, but go on living alongside their mother. Encumbered by their presence, she can only reproduce every three years. The female can be extremely dangerous when it comes to protecting her cubs.
He is a solitary animal, he roams a territory that can reach 780 km2 when food is scarce. When he defends its limits, he stands up on his hind legs to show his aggressiveness. Unlike other bears, the grizzly is active by day as well as by night.
Around November, the bears leave the river and go back up into the Rocky Mountains, he digs a den where he settles in to hibernate for one to 7 months. The grizzly is an extremely intelligent animal, probably more so than a dog. He manages to find a very varied diet and has a highly developed sense of direction. His strength is colossal and he is able to move rocks or tree trunks to find something to eat. Over short distances, he can run as fast as a horse.
In the past, Grizzlies reigned over the whole of North America, from the Arctic all the way to Mexico. But the destruction of their habitat, hunting and poisoning have pushed them back little by little and their range has shrunk. Today, 70% of grizzlies live in the wild regions of Alaska.
Here is the link to the cult film “The Bear” by Jean Jacques Arnaud, in 1988, about the wild history of the North. It is an adaptation of the famous novel by the American writer James Olivier Curwood, Le Grizzly (The Grizzly King), published in 1916.