BEARS!!!

 Wednesday July 23

Today was a day for seeing coastal brown bears at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park— and boy did we! We flew by floatplane for about 30 minutes and disembarked on the beach of the Naknek Lake within the park. 

Katmai National Park covers 4 million acres and is the 4th largest national park in the US. It sees 20,000 visitors in its short season, averaging over 500 per day. The park does a great job of managing the crowds to ensure everyone has a chance to be on the best viewing platforms next to the Brooks River and its falls. They also require all visitors to go to “bear school” to ensure you can behave safely and with minimal disruption to the bears. This includes emptying anything with scent (food, drinks, gum, bug spray, suntan lotion) from your packs. 

The Brooks River is one of the major salmon run rivers for the Sockeye Salmon. Sockeyes hatch in tributaries to Brooks Lake, up above the Brooks River, and spend several seasons in the lake before heading out to the ocean for several more years. In the ocean, they are a silvery color, but as they prepare for spawning their bodies turn red, their heads turn green, and they develop interesting protruding mouth parts. Getting to the spawning grounds requires swimming against the river currents for miles, and climbing the falls (which are about 6 feet high). Once a sockeye reaches the full coloration, even if it doesn’t successfully spawn, it dies. 

On the other side of the equation, the bears need to pack on as much fat as possible in order to survive without eating throughout their hibernation. Hibernation is triggered by dwindling food supplies, not by light or temperature, so it can range from 5 months to 7 months. Bears lose 40% of their body fat (as well as some muscle) during hibernation. So going into hibernation they want to be as fat as possible, gaining as much as 400 pounds. They practice hyperphasia, which means they never feel full and can just keep eating.  In a year of plentiful salmon (as this year is), they can be quite selective and only eat the high fat parts of a salmon— skin, head and roe. The rest of the fish carcass floats downstream to feel eagles, gulls, foxes and even ducks. 

The bears have several different fishing styles. Some stand in the water below the falls and scoop up fish that are tired or disoriented from an unsuccessful leap. Others “pounce” to try to catch a fish. The stream is unbelievably full of fish to start with, but when the fish sense a bear moving they get agitated— the water looks like it is boiling with fish. Others lung with claws or teeth from the top of the falls to catch a leaping fish. And a few “snorkel” with only their ears above water to listen for danger, grabbing fish from below. 

Of course not every bear is in the water (although at one point we could see 12 bears at once). Bears also wander through the surrounding woods and meadows, so you have to be continually on the lookout. We had to move or stand still to evade terrestrial bears on three occasions. We also thoroughly enjoyed seeing a few bear mothers with cubs, particularly on the beach where our float plane landed. 

Pictures: brown bear atop brooks falls with leaping fish, “boiling” fish, bear stripping skin from a salmon, cubs playing, mother and cub