A big boar intently looking for salmon on the Katmai Coast. Had the sun directly behind the bear, so opted to blow out the background, and expose for the intense face!
Can Brown Bears Climb Trees?
Funny, when growing up in Alaska I used to always hear the advice that if you ran into a brown / grizzly bear, you should climb a tree, but if it is a black bear, don’t bother. As the advice used to go, unlike black bears, brown bears had claws too long for them to climb trees.
Well I have seen so many brown bears over the years way up in trees to know that this advice is completely wrong. But, we have learned so much over the years Back then I was told grizzles and brown bears were two different species which DNA testing has since proven false. The bears in the interior of Alaska are smaller because of the more limited food source, not because they are a different species. Turns out, having access to high calorie salmon is helpful in growing big.
This was a sow with a couple of young cubs way up in a spruce on a rainy day this past June. Here she is watching a boar on the ground below. I will say, I haven’t seen any of the huge boars climbing trees so maybe they can’t. This probably isn’t lost on the sows.
Pack Creek Cub
This is literally one of the logs that designates the people area for bear viewing at Pack Creek! I think this little cub was as curious about us, as us him.
The sow literally brought her two nervous spring cubs over to our area and walked them right by us as if to show them that we are safe. She also “parked” the cubs fairly close to us as she wondered off to chase salmon. I will never forget these magical moments where a powerful animal like a coastal brown bear shows her trust and acceptance with us. Goosebumps! This isn’t unique to Pack Creek as I have seen similar behavior on numerous occasions in Lake Clark N.P., and Katmai.
Harding Icefield
We have been really busy in the home office working on a couple of big projects lately, but with the beautiful weather Alaska has been having this fall, we just had to get out of the office yesterday. We are fortunate to live near one of the great hiking trails in all the U.S., the Harding Icefield Trail. This is Janine at the end of the trail looking down on the icefield and top of Exit Glacier.
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