katmai bears

Katmai National Park is located in Southwest Alaska and encompasses just over four million acres of wild lands and rivers. Much of it is coastal, with little boundary between land and sea. Though originally designated a park for its volcanic history, Katmai is arguably most famous for its brown bears. More than two thousand bears inhabit the park, comprising the largest protected population on the planet.

Large numbers of salmon arrive to the park’s streams from Bristol Bay in June and July and spawn from August to October. Each bear develops its own methods for fishing, and some are more consistently successful than others.

Young cubs watch their mother from the sidelines, eventually joining her in her fishing attempts.

Multiple cubs in a litter means more competition for resources, but also more opportunity for play. In addition to being fun, play helps build strength, agility, and social skills in the cubs.

As the cubs get older, the sow encourages the cubs to fish for themselves. Though she meals shares less readily, she’s still protective and affectionate.

Male bears and females without cubs are relatively solitary, but when food resources are abundant they are tolerant of others being around. Females with cubs will fish near the males, but they remain on high alert for signs of aggression.

Other terrestrial mammals at Katmai include snowshoe hare, moose, timber wolf, coyote, beaver, lynx, wolverine, river otter, mink, Arctic and red fox, weasel, porcupine, and marten. Marine mammals include the harbor seal, sea lion, sea otter, beluga whale, killer whale and gray whale. Caribou are occasionally found in the park during winter. Many of these mammals also feed on salmon and some will scavenge leftovers from the bears. Fox are watchful for opportunity and often succeed in stealing salmon carcasses.

Gulls, magpies, ravens, and bald eagles (juvenile siblings, below) will also scavenge carcasses.

At Katmai, as with many other temperate Pacific ecosystems, nearly all life depends on salmon either directly or indirectly.