horakhti73: Do grizzlies rely more on speed or stealth to catch large prey?
Peter Gros: For their size, grizzlies can run at speeds of 35 mph to catch their prey. A burst of speed like that, chasing down animals racing through swampy areas, is enough to catch many of the large ungulates. Although a large portion of the grizzly bear diet consists of vegetation, roots, berries, insects and fish, they will consume large, hooved mammals such as moose, caribou and elk. After making a kill, it will not waste the remaining food, but will sometimes stockpile carcasses and cover them with pine needles and leaves to finish later.

susan_o0o: I understand that the bears and other wildlife filmed in Grizzly Encounters had probably never seen a human before. Given the unpredictability of bears and how fiercely they compete for food, especially say, a fish out of the water in possession of another creature — why didn't the bear become aggressive with Andreas in the surprise encounter? He was curious, yes, but the fish was on the land and he was coming to feed. It surprises me that the bear did not posture and try to intimidate Andreas from the food.
Peter Gros: I too was nervous watching such a close encounter, but Andreas had spent months researching the behavior of the bears he was going to film. With adequate preparation, once you learn the personalities of the bears, you can distinguish those that are the most aggressive and territorial from those that are not. This was a very old bear with a very full stomach who acted like he was unfamiliar with humans and therefore was not threatened and did not show any signs of aggression or fear. However, no one but a trained expert should ever intentionally place themselves in close proximity to bears.

mdre22: What is the biggest bear ever seen? Also, I remember seeing a show about a bear who did movies and has passed away, seen a picture and he was huge. Was he the biggest bear ever to do film?
Peter Gros: I have heard stories of bears weighing in the neigborhood of 1,500 pounds. I'm not familiar with the trained bear that you're talking about, but there is a lady named Ruth La Varge who works with a large grizzly bear on a program to set aside land for brown bears in southern California. The July issue of National Geographic has some stories that might answer your question. I think you'll find the largest bear sightings around Kodiak because of the high protein and fat-rich diet of salmon that are in such abundance for these bears to feed upon.

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