By Libby B Bushell

Special to the Homer Independent Press

Hello from Brooks Falls, Homer!

Today’s Dispatch is a profile of a very special bear cub.

At 2-and-a-half years old, she’s already endured the tragic loss of her baby sibling, emancipation from her world-famous mother (two-time Fat Bear Week champion, 128 Grazer) and most recently, and most heartwarmingly, adoption by another sow, Bear no. 806.

She is “Biggie” or 128 Junior, and she is running down the beach at a full gallop, gangly legs and all, chasing two yearling cubs and their mother. Biggie’s little six-month-old sibling is chasing just behind her, trying to keep up with her newly adopted big sister.

We’ve just landed our DeHavilland Otter on Naknek Lake, and we are stepping onto the floats as the scene unfolds.

The two yearling cubs run huffing into the trees that border the beach at Brooks Falls. Their mother follows them but then swivels to face off with the rambunctious 2-year-old. Biggie skids to a stop, pumice flying at the sight of the sow’s posturing. After only a moment of stare-down, the Mama slaps one paw on the ground, stomping at Biggie, who jumps! 

Long legs skittering under her in a tight turn, she runs back to her new family. The spring cub who was trying to keep up with the fun is bowled over by her new big sister, does a somersault and then follows Biggie back to their mother, Bear 806, who was lumbering behind the kids, surely doubting her decision to adopt this little rabble rouser.

Biggie and her sibling (the sex of the spring cub is still unknown) play fight for a moment while the other mother continues to glare from her defensive position by the trees. Biggie is gentle with her 40-pound sibling, slapping with an open paw and biting with lips more than teeth. Weighing in around 150 pounds, Biggie is by no means big for her cub class, but she was given that nickname when she was a spring cub herself, two years ago.

In 2024, Grazer was the reigning champion of Fat Bear Week at Brooks Falls. The summer before, she’d packed on enough pounds to woo the crowds who watch from the bear cams, and she won in a landslide against the other front-runner, 32 Chunk. But Grazer was packing more than fat in that 19-year old bear belly of hers. Grazer had the inkling of two new brown bears incubating inside her.

A bear’s gestation is wild. Mating occurs in June (read my last Dispatch for the full account), but bears have a delayed implantation, which means that the fertilized egg doesn’t implant in the uterus until October, just before hibernation. Regardless of their success in mating season, females will only become pregnant if they’ve also succeeded in fishing season or have otherwise packed on enough fat to support the gestation and then the growth and development of nursing cubs during their first four months in the den.

Grazer emerged at Brooks Falls on July 5, 2024 with two spring cubs, nicknamed Biggie and Smalls for obvious reasons. I was lucky enough to see the family of three that year before tragedy struck on July 27, 2024.

While Grazer was fishing, Biggie and Smalls washed over the lip of Brooks Falls. Grazer jumped down to save her cubs. Biggie escaped the current, ran to the bank and climbed a tree. Smalls was swept downstream and directly into the jaws of Chunk. Grazer fought ferociously to save her smallest baby, but by the time Chunk released the cub, the damage was done. The cub wasn’t dead yet, but it would succumb to its injuries within the week.

Grazer won Fat Bear Week again in 2024. She is the only female to win two years in a row, but what does Fat Bear Week matter to a bear? After the big tragedy of Smalls’ death, Grazer still had to continue to protect and provide for Biggie every day. She had to eat enough salmon to feed herself and nurse her cub amongst dozens of bears who would fight her, who would kill her cub just because. And then she had to forage on berries and den up in the winter and graze on sedge and then continue to protect and provide for Biggie in 2025, now a yearling cub and already a handful.

By late June this year, Grazer had emancipated Biggie. She gave up nursing, chased off her gangly cub and got back into the mating game. She was seen canoodling with at least one male bear, which is in stark contrast to Grazer’s typical no-nonsense, aggressive-towards-males behavior. She’s a fighter, but this spring, Grazer was also a lover.

Female bears only mate when they’re not nursing cubs. Lactation and estrus cannot happen simultaneously, so once Grazer was in estrus, Biggie was on her own at 2-and-a-half years. It’s normal for mothers to emancipate their cubs at 2 or 3, but what’s not normal is what happened next.

Biggie was adopted by Bear 806, AKA Little Lip Fisher. It’s the first time that anyone at the falls has seen a bear adopt a 2-year-old cub. In the last twenty years, the rangers at Brooks Falls have only seen two other adoptions, both of which were yearlings.

There is no evidence of how it happened, only speculation: was Biggie crying so much that 806 took pity on the young bear and adopted her? Did Biggie bully her way into the family? Is 806 using Biggie as a babysitter and paying her in bear milk? We’ll never know. What we do know is that 806 was seen nursing both her biological spring cub and Biggie in early July, and they’ve stuck together as a family ever since.

After the wild rumpus along the shore of Naknek Lake, I watched 806, Biggie and the Springer run up the river towards the falls. I met them at the Riffles Platform where the two mismatched cubs stayed on the bank while 806 fished the riffles.

She does the snorkel — dipping her face underwater to see the salmon as she swims around a deeper pool. Suddenly 806 rears up and bellyflops into the water, emerging with a flopping sockeye in her mouth. Another big bear sees her success and starts splashing towards 806, but she outmaneuvers him and sprints over to her two cubs where they greedily tear up the fish and share it onshore. 

They growl and moan as they eat the whole thing, bones and all, before 806 returns to the water to fish. Biggie and the spring cub stick together on the bank, gnawing. The spring cub has the salmon head in its paws and Biggie chews on the tail. Then they wrestle for a second before that other family from the beach arrives on the scene.

As soon as they see Biggie, the two yearlings climb up a tree. Biggie attempts to follow them but the other mother chases her off. The spring cub follows but it can’t keep up with the bigger cub. Pretty soon the springer is alone at the foot of the tree with the yearlings’ angry mother approaching. Biggie has disappeared into the woods. 806 returns to the bank and the two mothers exchange knowing glances but no aggressive posturing before both families go their separate ways. If only I could read those two mother bears’ minds, I think.

I get one last look at the family before it’s time to fly back to Homer. 806 is fishing and Biggie and the Springer are on the bank watching. They both stand up when their mom walks behind a log. Then they both flop back down when 806 reappears. It makes me wonder at how much I don’t know about these animals. Why would a mother bear adopt a cub that’s not her own, share her milk and salmon and put up with 2-year-old antics when she’s got to keep her 6-month-old safe? Unless she was compassionate to a young bear who still needed a mother? Do bears have empathy? Do they have fun? Do they build communities outside their nuclear families? How long will this family stick together, and how will the adoption affect the lives of both the cubs?

Every day I have more questions than answers about the bears of Katmai, and I am so grateful to get to witness them in the hours that I do. And even more grateful to get to see this heartwarming family dynamic before I head back to the sedge meadows, where the males are competing for the top spot amongst themselves.

Up next: Dominance, Aggression and the Hierarchies of Katmai.

Libby B Bushell is a local author and wildlife guide. She spends summers in Katmai with the bears and winters (the austral summer) in Antarctica with the emperor penguins. She is the founder of HoWL and is passionate about helping people get outside. It’s better out there!