Had the pleasure of working this summer at a location that was thick with bears- both blacks and browns (costal grizzlies). Bears use water for transportation- twice during the summer I saw black bears swimming across the lake where the distance shore to shore was close to two miles. The picture I posted earlier was of a very large brown that we named Phelps because he seemed to prefer swimming to walking- while other brown bears would take the path on the shore he nearly always chose to swim.

Phelps....

---