There’s nothing more impressive than a determined mother helping her kiddos.
It’s a momma bear’s duty to raise her young until they are able to fend for themselves out in nature. That process usually takes around one to two years, and obviously looks different from sow to sow. As you’ll see in this clip below out of Katmai National Park, this particular female bear was rather generous with her cubs.
Speaking of Katmai National Park, the sprawling area in Alaska is home to the famous “Fat Bear Week,” which runs each year from late September to early October.
The special week is hosted by the Katmai National Park and Preserve Explore.org and the Katmai Conservancy. The goal of Fat Bear Week is to showcase the Park’s brown bear population that attracts tourists from around the world to watch the bears fish for salmon as they fatten up for winter. And fat bear enthusiasts (which is all of us) have the ability to tune into Explore.org’s livestream to watch the bears year round.
Katmai National Park is home to an estimated 2,200 bears, and you can see a trio of them in action in this incredible video. It was actually one of the livestream cameras that captured this mother bear and her family traversing through Brooks Falls.
You’ve likely heard the phrase “carrying a team on their back,” so allow me to show you a real life example of that happening. This mom was likely sacrificing some of her own comfort to make sure that her cubs got to the other side of the water safely. I’d imagine that the little ones on her back were likely having to dig in to stay on her back, and there were more than a couple of times where one fell off and then climbed back aboard.
And she didn’t seem bothered by any of it at all. The mother bear was even taking the opportunity to snack on some underwater vegetation while she was acting as an “Uber” for her small cubs, and I don’t blame her for it. Traveling through water with two cubs on your back is probably one heck of a workout. It’s really just another example of a mother going above and beyond, and that shouldn’t be all that surprising. That’s just what moms do, especially if their kiddos need a ride.
The post from National Park News was captioned:
“A mama bear known as ‘Brett’ gave her cubs a ride across the river in Alaska’s iconic Katmai National Park and Preserve. It’s a cute sight, but also a convenient form of transportation for the little ones!
The water can get pretty deep in spots around Brooks Falls, which is famous for attracting big brown bears every year as they fatten up on salmon for the winter.”
And I know I let Fat Bear Week hijack this story a bit, but it’s truly one of the greatest, most wholesome things that we humans have thought up. Last year was a little weird because a bear killed another bear on camera, but for the most part, it’s a fun event that many – like myself – look forward to following every single year.
Last year, Fat Bear Week took place in the first week of October, so go ahead and tentatively put it on your calendar…
