Big Bears and Little Bears

Robert, Wednesday, July 9

Sunshine! This morning was beautiful with lots of sunshine and blue sky. We got going and headed for the falls once again. Headed we were but we didn’t make it. When we got to the bridge, the ranger said we could cross if we moved fast. We just got across and they closed the bridge. We climbed the platform at the bridge to watch the show at our feet. The bridge is almost at the mouth of Brooks River where it empties into Naknek Lake. The falls, which is half way between the two lakes, is where the big male bears fish. There are smaller males there as well but they stay out of the way of the big boys. When one of the smaller males catches a fish, if they don’t take the fish and run, one of the big boars takes it away. If a big boar decides he wants to fish where one of the smaller males is fishing, the little guy turns tail and quickly gets out of town. And most of the males, large and small, carry signs of previous fights. They have multiple, visible scars and some have teeth sticking out of their mouths at odd angles that look like the result of a broken jaw that never set properly. Anyway, the males are a serious threat to cubs. That means that a sow with cubs stays away from the falls. The place the sows with cubs gather is near the floating bridge. We just got to the platform overlooking the bridge when we were told that we couldn’t leave as there were sows with cubs all around us. Sows with cubs can be more dangerous than a big male. They will defend their cubs against anything they perceive as a threat. There was a sow with two cubs at each end of the bridge. My guess is that the sows learn that being close to people tends to keep the boars away. The boars will kill a cub if they can catch it. We were on the platform for several hours before we could leave but there were sows with cubs within 20 feet of us, Still at the bridge were hundreds and perhaps thousands of salmon so the sows would leave the cubs at the foot of the platform while they fished. Every now and then a young male would get too close and the sow would quickly return to the cubs. Every time the male got the message and moved away. Shortly after noon the bridge reopened and we went back to the campsite for lunch. After lunch we made our way to the falls but there weren’t fish jumping. There were the usual ten or twelve bears fishing but the rate they caught fish was far less than the day before. We returned to the platform at the bridge where we again watched several sows with cubs. After that it was back to the campground, dinner, and bed.