Brown Bear, Alaska

This is a photo of a brown bear with long stems of sedge grass in its mouth.

A brown bear munches on sedge grass in Lake Clark National Park.   I’m not sure why it is that brown bears, at least where they are routinely photographed, pretty much ignore humans.  I don’t know of any distance rules regarding the bears in Lake Clark.  Of course, there was the famous case of Timothy Treadwell, a brown bear activist who, along with his girlfriend, was killed by a male brown bear in 2003.

Brown Bear, Lake Clark National Park

This is a photo of brown bear in Lake Clark National Park.

Brown Bear, Lake Clark National Park

This is a photo from a few years ago in Lake Clark National Park. This female brown bear was feeding on sedge grass, a very important food source until the salmon spawning runs begin.  Her cub was just out of the photo.

Brown Bear Sow

Brown Bear Takes a Nap Next to Us

Brown Bear Takes a Break

I was with a few others photographing this female brown bear while she was fishing. The silver salmon run hadn’t begun yet at Silver Salmon Creek, but that didn’t stop her from giving it a try.  She caught a starry flounder and then, after a while, a silver salmon.  A larger male bear was also fishing and catching nothing. When she caught the salmon he chased her for several minutes and she was holding onto the fish so hard that one or both ends fell to the ground.  That caused the male to stop.  After the chase she walked toward us.  She kept coming and finally stopped and plopped down not far from our feet.

She had a reputation as a very good fisher.  She also had a rep that wasn’t as nice.  She abandoned her year-old cub not long before this.  We would see it on occasion and hoped and prayed it would make it to and through hibernation.

Mother Brown Bear, Lake Clark National Park

Brown bear sow, clams
Mama bear goes clamming.

My last two mornings at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge we had very low tides.  That brought the bears from the sedge grass meadows to the tidelands.  I was amazed to learn how well the bears find the clams.  They quickly smell them through little holes or vents in the sand that go from the clams up to the surface.  It’s also amazing how easily they use their big claws to pry open the shells.  They are very efficient at it.  Not a lot of meat from each clam, but I guess it adds up and is a welcome change from their mostly grass diets.