King of the Wild

The grizzly is Ursus arctos horribilis, a name given to it in 1815 for its fearsome character. "Grizzly" itself is plainer: it refers to the grizzled, gray-tipped hair on the back and shoulders.

The bear once ranged across much of the Great Plains and the Southwest. In the lower 48 it now lives in parts of Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, with about 1,000 in the Greater Yellowstone area alone. Alaska holds far more. At Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, bears stand at the lip of the falls in summer and catch leaping salmon in their mouths.

A bear on its hind legs is usually trying to see or smell something better, not preparing to charge.

This one stands upright in churning water, mouth open in a roar, with a plume of breath fogging out into the cold air. The fur is built up in thick ridges from dark umber at the shoulders to honey gold where the light catches it, and white spray flies off the coat. The background drops into dark blue-black streaks, so the animal seems to come forward out of the frame.