Alaska’s Brooks Falls hosts one of many largest concentrations of grizzly bears on the earth. As salmon make their method up the six-foot waterfalls, bears vie for one of the best fishing spots. And the females will do no matter it takes to guard their younger.
Grizzly bear characters
The grizzly bears at Brooks Falls are vastly fashionable with vacationers. These bears are additionally adopted intently on Katmai’s dwell bearcams. Some have nicknames, amongst them some cumbersome people like Walker, Chunk and 747. However I travelled to this spot to see the females.
Journey
I stayed at Jacques Camp on the banks of Lake Iliamna, and travelled by float airplane to Katmai Nationwide Park to observe the bears at Brooks Falls. The journey itself was fairly an journey. We flew to Naknek Lake, downstream of the falls and from there walked via the woods.
Brooks falls
These waterfalls signify the ultimate problem for salmon migrating from the Pacific Ocean to breed within the higher reaches of those rivers. Every spring, following a journey of at the very least a thousand miles, the salmon should leap the six-foot falls to make it to their spawning grounds in Brooks Lake past. Security is lower than a mile away, however first they have to run the gauntlet, leaping out of the water, proper into the trail of some hungry grizzly bears.
Grizzlies collect
The possibility for a simple meal leads the bears to collect in large numbers. The most important bears are likely to take one of the best spots on the falls, however I discover the way in which the females and cubs behave probably the most attention-grabbing.
Feminine bears
Mom bears give beginning between January and March, and by now their cubs are round six months outdated. I watched one feminine, often called 402, who’s believed to be round 25 years outdated and to have had eight litters, greater than any bear at Brooks River.
Defending cubs
Grizzly males are a risk to cubs and might typically kill to pressure a feminine into oestrus and guarantee solely their very own genes are handed on. The females subsequently spend a lot of their time guarding their younger.
Grazer
However one bear mum, Grazer, had no downside standing as much as the opposite bears. Her cubs have been two years outdated and nearing independence. Affectionately often called the ‘Grazerettes’, they oozed confidence as they adopted their dominant mom to one of the best fishing spot on the falls.
Bear techniques
Apparently every ‘mama bear’ had its personal, distinctive method to parenting. Some, like a feminine nicknamed 402, have been cautious, others have been chancers and but extra have been outdated fingers and calmly assured.