Please Bear with WC

As most readers know, WC mostly photographs birds. But WC has been in Denali National Park, not the ideal place for avian photography. WC had to make do with Grizzlies. Specifically, WC watched grizzly bears grubbing for Eskimo Potato (Claytonia tuberosa).

Sniffing for Eskimo Potato Roots

The plants are leafed out yet, let alone blooming. So the bears had to search by smell. As this young bear is doing. Remarkable to find a root under ground by smell alone. Once the bear thinks it has found one, there’s some delicate excavation.

Delicate Excavation

If you have ver watched a grizzly dig for a ground squirrel, “delicate” and “grizzly” won’t have come to mind. But those big talons really do proceed very carefully.

No Opposable Thumbs

Holding the exposed root delicately in its teeth, the bear pulls the root slowly and carefully out of the ground.

Lunch Time

Then it’s simply a matter of chewing. As WC watched, this two year old and his mother went through half a dozen iterations of this drill, before finally settling down for a nap.

Grizzly bears emerge from their long winter’s nap to a world that doesn’t yet have anything green and precious little to eat. But after not eating since fall, obviously food is the order of the day. Eskimo potatoes make an interesting, nutritious food.