Up in the northern reaches of Katmai National Park, a huge salmon run occurs later in the summer. Bears travel from hundreds of miles away to congregate and gorge themselves on the bounty of flesh that these salmon bring.
We are tasked with doing monitoring during busy weeks in these areas, covering human use, bear use and bear dynamics. We spend a lot of time with binoculars latched to our heads, staring at bears.
But with that you see some intensely interesting behavior from bears. This photo brings a lot of memories for me specifically. We were sitting on the edge of a river while across the river several large males jockeyed for position in the best fishing spots. This smaller male sat on the perimeter, patiently watching and waiting for his time to strike. When a particularly intense squabble happened between the alpha males, this bear quickly snuck in, snatched a salmon, and was all the way across the river into the long grass before the dominant bears could realize what just happened. Even when bears are actively being kicked out by bigger bears, there is so much food abound that no one is going hungry.
Each one of these salmon carry around 4000 calories per fish, and the bears can eat upwards of 90,000 calories a day. Fat is fab in the bear world.
#bears #brownbears #wildlifephotography #nature #alaska #katmai #nature #salmon #fishing
We are tasked with doing monitoring during busy weeks in these areas, covering human use, bear use and bear dynamics. We spend a lot of time with binoculars latched to our heads, staring at bears.
But with that you see some intensely interesting behavior from bears. This photo brings a lot of memories for me specifically. We were sitting on the edge of a river while across the river several large males jockeyed for position in the best fishing spots. This smaller male sat on the perimeter, patiently watching and waiting for his time to strike. When a particularly intense squabble happened between the alpha males, this bear quickly snuck in, snatched a salmon, and was all the way across the river into the long grass before the dominant bears could realize what just happened. Even when bears are actively being kicked out by bigger bears, there is so much food abound that no one is going hungry.
Each one of these salmon carry around 4000 calories per fish, and the bears can eat upwards of 90,000 calories a day. Fat is fab in the bear world.
#bears #brownbears #wildlifephotography #nature #alaska #katmai #nature #salmon #fishing
