AnimalsMagazine

It’s not easy finding your way here. Or here. Or anywhere really.

And that’s the thing about systems. They’re big. Huge really. Even the small ones. And they’re all complex and frustrating and messy.

How they work is seemingly incomprehensible.

And because there are so many systems – and so many of us in each system – it becomes almost impossible to see our place in them. We can’t get why they matter. We can’t see how we influence them.

But we are and they do and we can.

And sometimes it takes two bears to do something totally unexpected to remind us that what we think we know about a place like this – or this – isn’t always what we assume; that despite what we think, we can leave our mark and do our part to shape a tomorrow that’s far better than yesterday.

What’s so extraordinary about these bears? Well, they didn’t start at the top. I mean who does?

Well, if you’re going to be literal, sure, some do I guess.

Which isn’t to say they started at bottom. Unlike Drake.

Well, actually, maybe they have a bit more in common with Drake, who definitely didn’t start at the bottom either. I mean, we are talking grizzly bears after all.

But where these bears stand? How they got here? And who these bears are and what they’re doing and why? That’s the story.

You see, we’ve long been told bears are cranky. Reclusive. Solitary. That in a system this large and this complex, it’s in their nature to be aggressive and anti-social. It’s what allows them to eat and compete and reproduce and have just the right level of influence on creatures big and small, up and down the food chain – across an entire system.

And that’s not wrong. But it’s also not the full story. No story – no journey – is predetermined.

This isn’t a mother and cub or a mating pair.

These bears? They’re siblings. One female. One male.

But they’re more than that. They’re friends. And, at times, frienemies. But, at the end of each day, for six years, they’re partners in stewarding this landscape.

They’re two sub-adults occupying the most productive grizzly bear habitat in one of the most important ecosystems on the planet.

They’re re-defining what we know – what we thought we knew – about bears, about nature, about systems.

How so?

Well, maybe you have a sibling. Maybe you tolerate them. Saint.

But bear siblings are not like our sibling relationships. They don’t stay together as they grow up and leave home. And even if there are stories of occasional friendly catch-ups at the old bison carcass, the friendliness usually lasts about as long as the catch up and ends when it’s determined there’s only enough seconds for one.

Why hasn’t this relationship devolved into this?

It’s not a simple story.

Chocolate fought for his niche, his range – to have the power to be the most dominant bear on the landscape. He followed the path all bears are supposed to follow. Bide time. Gain strength. Lose a battle, but not the war. And when it’s time? Win the war.

And it’s a path that worked for Chocolate. Until the pressure to gain and maintain strength was too much – until Chocolate lost the war.

When he died, it wasn’t a given who would walk in his outsized prints. But it was a given that someone would.

And these two thought: Why not us?

Well, we know why it shouldn’t be them. We know they should have ceded this landscape to this guy. These two have nothing on this bear. Individually at least.

But together? Yes, if they could find a way, together they stood a chance.

And, together, they are.

Here they are.

 

In a place no one ever imagined two young, small bears could be; working together – leading together, carving out a living together – in ways science tells us is unheard of for siblings – unheard of for this species.

These bears aren’t perfect – this isn’t Disney. They do have disagreements – there are in any relationship. But when it comes to that final helping of moose? They’re getting creative and finding ways to prevent this from devolving into this. They’ve decided that no matter how imperfect it might be, together, they can do more than survive and endure: They can thrive.

And that, friends, is politics.

It’s why politics matters. It’s why this story matters.

Two bears in a cluttered, complicated ecosystem are showing us that just because something has always been so, doesn’t mean it must always be so. They’re reminding us that we create our future; that we’re the authors of our history.

And when we choose to work together, we can create a better balance between people and nature; we can create a better tomorrow – author a better history – for our nation and our world.