Bears
July 30, 2008
While in Anchorage we decided to take a float plane flight to view
bears feeding on salmon. The flight was with Ellison Air
(http://www.ellisonair.com), a small husband and wife operation. They
fly you to a lake where you get on a small outboard boat to go to a
stream coming into the lake. The salmon are congregating there to go
upstream to spawn and the bears come there to feed on the salmon.
You get to watch the bears up close and personal, while
sitting on the boat.
Our float plane; it seats five passengers and the pilot. There were
four of us plus the pilot for this trip.
Our destination was Big River Lake, which is about a 50 minute flight
southwest of Anchorage. Enroute to the bear viewing area we passed by
Mt. Spur, one of the 19 volcanoes in Alaska.
People watching the bears. During the time we were here, there were
usually three or four other boats as well. Judging by the lengths of
the lenses, some of the people are pretty serious about their
photography.
A couple of brown bears were in the lake trying to catch salmon.
According to our pilot/guide they are four-year old siblings. He has
been coming here almost daily during the spawning season for several
years and has watched them grow up. These bears are not yet fully
matured and are still learning how to catch salmon. Biologists say that
brown bears in the coastal region are the same species as grizzly bears
in the interior; they just have different names. The brown bears
generally grow larger since they get more protein in their diet due to
catching fish.
Watching for salmon to swim too close.
"You think you can do better? Let's see you try it! "
The elusive goal - sockeye salmon. They turn bright red when ready for
spawning. Our pilot/guide said the salmon run starts here about June 15
and lasts until mid-August. He said it takes the bears a few days to
discover that the salmon are running and so he starts coming here about
June 20.
This bear was tired of being wet and decided to dry off in the sun,
while still looking for salmon. Check out the bear's claws. I would not
want tangle with him (her?).
"How about up here? Now I can see the fish better, but I am too far
away to catch them!"
There were two or three black bears in the area. When the brown bears
would wander off a black bear would come down to the water to
see if he could catch a fish.
When a brown bear came back, the black bear would slink away. In the
bear pecking order, brown bears rank above black bears.
This is called bear viewing up close and personal. Actually, the bear
is not as close as it looks in the photo; the telephoto lens makes
things look closer together than they really are. I would guess the
bear was about 10 feet away from the boat.. Once we did have a bear
come about 5 feet from our boat while pursuing a fish. It then backed
off. The bears seemed to be used to people being around and ignored us
while fishing. But the closeness certainly violates guidelines from
national park rangers; at Denali they want you to stay a quarter-mile
from bears.
Missed again! A very frustrated bear.
Success! Perserverance does pay off. In the hour and a half
we were there, we saw only three fish get caught by the bears. When one
bear caught a fish, it woud head into the woods to eat it. The other
bear would come and try to get his share (take it away?). The bears
have not learned to share. Click
here to see a video clip
(.mpg format, 1.8 MB) of the bear carrying away his fish.
It was time to head home. We were at the bear viewing area about an
hour and a half; the two brown bears and a couple of black bears were
there almost continuously, so there was always something to watch. It
was a great afternoon, well worth the cost of the trip!