High Sierra Topix

On a recent trip, about a mile from the Roaring River ranger station, I encountered two, very large adult bears hanging out in the same meadow.

I thought this was odd, and just wanted to ask if it is normal for two adult bears to hang around each other. I had never seen it before.

Usually when you see two bears together, they are a mother/cub, mother/juvenile, or two juvenile friends. But as I said, these two were both much too large to be juveniles.

Their reaction to me was normal. One was much closer and we sort of startled each other; that bear trotted away from me (normal sign of submission by a wild bear). The other was further away, and just stared at me curiously for a while.

I didn't see any bear tags on them.

- Elizabeth

I've seen multiple adult black bears in deep forest areas, especially big red fir forests where they quickly all climb up trees when discovered. Black bears of course like areas of big trees where they evolved to be able to escape grizzly bears that don't climb. My suspicion is they are used to seeing other bears there because such areas are their species hiding places free of humans. In fact I know one obscure place the Tuolumne Meadows bears hang out during summer which is a bit west of Cathedral Creek and south of SR120. I took a friend there a few years ago and as predicted we saw 3 bears together.

I only recall once when I saw two bears in a meadow at Crane Flat. One of them chased the other off:

I once saw a group of 5 together 2 of which were cubs, very strange.. Several times i have seen bears within a couple hundred yards from one another but the group of 5 was spread out of about a 80 yard circle.. This was in late August

Rougue, Nice pics BTW

Yes Rogue, those are some good photos - nice that you followed the action.
I once saw three together (mother and two very young cubs) in Mineral King. Another sighting in Mineral King where an adult crossed the trail in front of me, and moments later another (adult or juvenile - not sure) crossed the trail behind me, and they were both headed in the same direction.
Herm

Oleander

Not exactly an answer to your question but I once saw 6 different adult bears within a week and within 1/2 mile of the Roaring River Ranger Station. I also once heard during training that about 22 (that is the number stuck in my head) lived in the lodgepole area (sometime in the 80s) but only a few caused problems. This density suggests that blackbears must coexist in proximity at times other than mating (may/june) and mothers/cubs. I suspect, like most animals, they differ in their tolerance of others of the same species and that more dominant once will make sure that others do not encroach on their sense of space.

When up in Glacier in early September I observed a mother griz with two cubs cross a slope then a couple of hours later another griz passed the same area. Clearly griz have overlapping territories as well. How well they tolerate each other in that habitat in close proximity to another bear is another question. We have all seen nature video of several Alaskan brown bears (big griz) grabbing salmon in close proximity to one another. So in certain conditions they do tolerate each other. I suspect prime locations are usurped by the biggest guys though--kind of like markskor grabbing the prime spot all the time when I am fishing with him.

Mike