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Meet the bears of Alaska's McNeil River and Hallow Bay.  Click on any image for full sized photo.

From Rick's trip to Hallow Bay (1998) with a BBC film crew...

"Each day we would hike in from the beach to a large meadow of sedge grass where many grizzlies gathered to graze.  As we approached the meadow, a dozen bears were already present and often we would find ourselves surrounded by forty bears.  None of us carried a gun, and one of our party enjoyed getting as close as possible to 'meet' the bears.  On the average, we remained about fifty feet away (bear tolerance zone), although when filming one mother, she strolled to within a couple feet of us as she followed the clams.  It was fascinating to observe her sniff at the sand to locate razor clams.  Every dig would yield a clam.  Holding it in one paw, she would open it with a single claw, devour the contents , move on to the next."