Don't Be Bear Careless!!

Lately, I see at least one bear every day. There are so many bears around that we've had to modify our trails in order to maneuver around them more safely, and to keep other people from trying to get too close to them.

Here's a bear I saw this morning. I saw this bear running up and down the creek, bounding into the water. I didn't think it was a very effective fishing strategy, and was quite surprised to see it actually catch a fish this way! I guess trampling fish works too!

This is what the bear was after. These are sockeye salmon.

 

I took this picture of a monitor up by the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. They have a camera underwater in the creek. I snapped the camera just as a fish swam by. Isn't he cute?

These fish are born in fresh water, go out into the ocean for 2-3 years, and then return to the very stream in which they were born in order to spawn. They can locate the stream by their incredible sense of smell. Sockeye turn from silver to deep red, acquire a hump on their back, and gain a hooked mouth when entering fresh water. They stop eating and fight their way upstream, enduring vicious fungal and bacterial infections. As their bodies shut down and they spend every last ounce of energy they can muster, the fish that make it past the hungry bears arrive at the breeding grounds. Females find a suitable gravel bank to lay their eggs in and the males will then fertilize them. Their death-riddled bodies only survive for another week or two before the inevitable occurs.

Death awaits every single salmon that returns to fresh water. And the ecosystem relies on this- these salmon are bringing marine nutrients from the ocean to the land. When they die, they provide the land with the ultimate gift, allowing everything around them to grow and flourish. And with all these dead fish, there is definitely no shortage of bears!

I came across this large, hungry black bear today on my afternoon hike with a group. It was a peaceful bear that just wanted to eat devil's club berries. You can see it standing up and reaching for berries between the bushes in this next series of photographs.

 

It found another nice patch of berries on the other side of the trail, so it decided to cross right in front of us. I was a bit frightened since I wasn't quite sure what the people in my group might do. I gave them a bear safety talk and told them never to run from a bear, but what I wasn't expecting was that they would walk right up to it! We were less than 20 ft from this thing! I had my bear spray out, just in case it decided to act out on a tourist (I wouldn't blame it!). I slowly, calmly, and urgently directed those in my group to back away from the bear and to leave it alone. We made sure to face the bear while we walked away backwards and out of its field of view. I would have felt pretty badly if I had to spray the bear. This bear just wanted berries and we were disturbing it. The bear walked across the trail and hid under the stairs in the path. Slowly, it then ventured out and up the hillside to find more berries. Luckily nothing happened.

And that's why you shouldn't be bear careless!