What is your first thought or reaction when you hear of a grizzly bear? Would it be how cute, cuddly, and calm they are? No, it usually wouldn’t be. To many it would be how ferocious, mean and tempered they can be.
      Amanda McInelly, 21, could tell you that not all bears are ferocious, man-slaughtering animals. She has experienced first hand how peaceful they can be. Amanda is a native Alaskan who lives and works in Anchorage. She used to go to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, but she then switched to Washington State University because they did not have her major, which is interior design. During the summer Amanda works in the University Museum in Fairbanks.
      Even though she lives in a large city in Alaska, she has had some wilderness adventures. Once, Amanda was rafting with her friends in Denali National Park on the Tanana River. Taking a break from rafting, they stopped to go fishing beside the river that had many small islands in it. There in the mouth of the river, there was a great grizzly bear. He was there prosperously fishing along the other side of the river. Many people think that grizzly bears are vicious, but the grizzly Amanda met didn’t seem to mind them at all. “He was fishing and we were fishing and he was just cool with it,” says McInelly.
      When asked if she was at scared when she was so close to the giant and dangerous animal, Amanda said she was not. She explained that she though it was very cool to be that close to an animal with such power, since she never had been before. And, as she pointed out, if you don’t bug grizzlies, they usually won’t bug you.