Submitted by John Mihalevich of Springfield
This is a photo of bears fishing for sockeye salmon at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska. This was taken on June 30, 2009. Katmai is a 4.5 million acre park which has the largest concentration of Grizzlies of any of our national parks. The only way to get to Brooks lodge in Katmai is by float plane or boat. These bears are actually Brown bears which are actually grizzlies but because they are near the coast they have a diet of salmon which makes them average 600 lbs more than the inland grizzly. The bears are just out of hibernation and are hungry. They will put about 300 lbs on in the summer before hibernating again in the winter. The bears have different fishing styles. The bear at the top of the falls is waiting for a salmon to jump the falls. The two at the bottom are looking and feeling for salmon. The average salmon will provide about 4500 calories and the usual catch per bear is about 7-10 fish per day. They are better at fishing than I am.
John Mihalevich
{mos_ri:flksdfind}
