Brown Bears in Mist, Russia

Photograph by Michael Melford

In early morning mist that rolls in from the coast, two brown bears tussle like teenagers. "I was at this spot a year earlier and saw these bears doing the same thing," says John Paczkowski, a biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society. "They sparred for about 40 minutes, taking breaks to eat a few berries." Bears in the Kronotsky reserve often encounter each other at salmon streams and seem to socialize more here than in some other food-rich areas.

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