Salmon Run and Bears Oh My!

First view of a brown bear patiently fishing

  We have had a few bear sightings this summer but nothing too outstanding. Usually the bear sighting are through binoculars from the bow of the big ship. Not today. Pavlof stream seemed like the perfect bear spot when I visited earlier this summer. A short trail winds its way up along the bank of a river, past a 15ft cascading waterfall, into the huge Lake Pavlof. This trail in itself is worth the visit to Pavlof. The lake is surrounded by towering snow capped mountains and is the only place in Southeast Alaska that you can commonly see the rare Trumpeter Swan.

   This trip to Pavlof would prove my earlier theories correct. The first group ashore radioed back to the ship saying they couldn't make it past the waterfall because six bears were ambling around and fishing in the river! I don't think anyone was upset that we couldn't make it to the lake. It was about as good a bear show as you can get. We added more trips ashore just so everyone could get this wild Alaska experience.

The Pounce

Success!

  When my group walked around the corner of the salmon stream we saw one big brown bear out in the river, waiting patiently for a salmon to swim close enough for him to pounce on. Animal instincts would suddenly kick in as the bear would lunge forward stabbing the salmon with it's huge claws. We sat there in awe watching this spectacle unfold before us.

Showing off his catch

  After the bear would catch a salmon he would amble back to the shoreline with the fish still whipping back and forth in it's mouth. After a quick eat he would return to his favorite fishing spot and wait for another doomed salmon.
   We were excited even more when a young bear poked out of the forest on the far side of the river. This bear was very cautious of the much bigger bear we had been watching. So the young bear sat and watched from the river, biding its time. In the meantime however another big bear showed the youngen how it is done. This bear swaggered right into the river, snatched up a fish within minutes, and then swaggered out with its catch, all right in front of the first bear.

Young Bear, Learning and Wary

Enough Room for All at this Table

   Then, not 50 yards up the shoreline on our side a fourth bear popped out of the forest, turned, and headed straight to the waterfall. It was like being in the middle of a national geographic nature special. Even from the big boat passengers were delighted with the playful antics of a couple of cubs on the beach with their mama bear. When I went in to the river later to pick up the last group I saw the mama and cubs had made it to the feeding frenzy and each cub had been given a freshly caught salmon by the mom. It doesn't get much better than this.