Spring Activities at McNeil

Watching bears at McNeil is quite the experience.  While you can be close to bears at Katmai you are usually above them.  At McNeil you hike through the muck and mud and sit on logs and let the bears be bears.  This may mean they walk right up to the group.  The guide is always ready to do what is necessary even if that means shooting the bear but for the most part the bears are use to humans being at a close proximity.  We got to see quite a few bears on our first day out.

McNeil contains a very large sedge meadow.  This is where most of the bears were hanging out.  Being it was spring the bears were doing the natural thing.  Eating, sleeping and having sex.  What a life.  We saw some peculiar mating rituals, we saw a female chase off a smaller female near a male only to turn around and play hard to get with the same male.  It was comical to watch.  We saw a female come out of the woods and fight with one male who was not exactly small in size, then head off to another bigger male and almost demand to be mated.  The boar however was not too keen on granting her wishes.  That did not stop her as she kept everyone away from the male until he finally gave in to her demands.

Then there was one male who we saw mate with one female and within minutes mate with another.  Spend 45 minutes to an hour mating with her and finish and find another female.  I think I counted 7 females that boar mated with while we were there.  I never did see him eat.  Wonder how he kept the stamina up.

There were bear couples that nuzzled and played and curled up together before and after mating.  Then there were the love them and loose them couples and even a couple where the female showed no interest at all in the activities.  While he was doing his thing she just stood there waiting.  Every once in a while glancing back to see if he was done yet.  Then when he finally got off her she just started to eat grass.  Like nothing had ever happened.  Life, got to love it.