***A portion from the sale of this painting will be donated to MARS Wildlife Rescue in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. BC, Canada.

A Kodiak bear I saw a couple years ago while out taking photos of wildlife with a fellow artist and close friend.   This bear was playing with another, cooling off in a pool of water. It was quite interesting to watch their play. We were very entertained by the two bears playing. 

Fun Fact: Kodiak bears are a unique subspecies of large brown bear found native to the Kodiak Archipelago in Alaska. 

From bear.org:
Kodiak bears (Ursus arctos middendorffi) live on Kodiak Island or one of the nearby islands off the coast of southwestern Alaska. These bears can be nearly as large as polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and include the largest brown bears (Ursus arctos) on record. Sixteen of the twenty largest brown bears killed by hunters have come from the Kodiak Archipelago.

A large male can stand over 10 feet tall on his hind legs and 5 feet on all fours. A weight of 1,648 pounds was listed for one male in the Journal of Mammalogy. Females are about 20 percent smaller and 30 percent lighter than males.

Brown bears, which include Kodiak bears, live in Europe, Asia, and North America. The 3 subspecies of brown bear that live in North America are Kodiak bears, coastal brown bears (Ursus arctos gyas), and grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis).