Although it looks quite brutal and intense, these two sub-adult male grizzly bears are actually wrestling – a form of play fighting often enacted by male grizzlies of this age group. I have seen this occur on many occasions between siblings and non-siblings that are just buddies that hang out together during the early years of living alone after being weaned by their mum. Hanging out together could also be a form of ‘safety in numbers’ for these two friends of the Khutzeymateen, they definitely warned each other and ran together when a dominant male came strutting around looking for trouble. Dominant males will push out or even kill sub-adult males in order to reduce the competition for eligible females during mating season.
