Brown bears - Halo Bay, Katmai National Park, Alaska

This cub was one of two belonging to another female. What was interesting about her cubs was that they were very different in coloration. This cub had a silver-collar and the other didn't. Why? Female brown bears have delayed implantation which allows them to mate with multiple males and have multiple fertilized eggs floating in their uterus for up to five months before implanting. When the female has gained enough weight to handle the pregnancy, the eggs will begin gestation.

These shots were taken in August 2010 over a family holiday in Alaska. After seeing bears in Denali National Park and at a few stops along the parks road from Denali down to Anchorage, we thought - wow, it can't better than this. We were VERY wrong! We stayed in Homer for only three nights and two days and they were the most consistently sunny and beautiful days of our trip. We had arranged a flight-seeing trip out to Katmai National Park (from Homer) where we landed on the beach and then hiked in to the river deltas where brown bears were hunting for salmon. The biggest precaution was that we weren't allowed to pack salmon sandwiches so the bears wouldn't be interested in us. And, they weren't. We never felt threatened or unsafe and we could have watched them for days. Instead, we had only a few hours with them.

For more information: Brown bear, K-Bay Air, Land's End Resort, Boardwalk Bakery