Two grizzly cubs hitch a ride on swimming mother’s back

16 thoughts on “Two grizzly cubs hitch a ride on swimming mother’s back”

1. And why did the bear cross the river? Makes me tired just watching.

2. Jerry, I think you meant to say Ursus horribilis. Arctos is the polar bear, I believe.

   1. Polar bear is Ursus maritimus. The mainland grizzly is Ursus arctos horribilis. If that is the Kodiak version, it is Ursus arctos middendorffi.

      1. A brown bear is simply Ursus arctos. Arctos means northern in Latin.

         1. Άρκτωος (arctus when Latinized) is Greek for northern. It’s why I always mix up the polar bear name.

            I actually pulled out my Ancient Greek lexicon to find it because Άρκτος means bear. I think Άρκτωος can be thought of as “where the bear lives” so Northern. And the reason I mix it up with the Latin binomial.

            A Classics education is a blessing and a curse. 🐍

            1. “Arktos” means bear in Ancient Greek. “Arktikos” means “of the bear” and refers to a circular region of the sky defined by the latitude of the southernmost star in the Great Bear constellation of the Greeks.

               This Greek idea is origin of our Arctic Circle.

            2. I thought I said at more or less. I even had the lexicon out.

            3. I’m sorry. I did not understand that you were saying that “where the bear lives” is an astronomical term and felt I needed to add that information as a clarification.

      2. Yeah I figured I probably got the polar bear wrong but was too lazy to look.

3. So guys, why not offer a ride instead of just watching?

   1. You’d invite a mother grizzly onto your boat?
      Just a second while I get popcorn.
      … and a red raincoat.
      … and a camera.
      And onto another boat.

4. I’d love to see how she managed to get the cubs to climb aboard. It must have taken some convincing.

5. I wonder what mom would have done had a cub fallen off. . .

   How well do bear cubs swim?
   I’ll hazard a guess that there’s food on the far bank, and a male grizzly on the near bank, leading to an ursine variant on the old puzzle about the man travelling with a sheep, a wolf and a cabbage, who comes to a river with a small boat.
   Wolves on the near bank might be enough too. While one wolf versus a bear+cub isn’t much of a threat, several wolves and several cubs is a much harder fight.

6. Here’s a clip of the same mum’n’cubs crossing, but in this one we get to see them hit the beach on the other side:

   1. Excellent! Good to see.

7. Reblogged this on The Logical Place.

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