The Fall Life of Bears: Foraging, fishing, and family 2

2. Fishing

Knight’s Inlet Lodge is located close to a salmon spawning channel, and a river, and they have built viewing stands to which the bears are now accustomed.

For about two months you can see them fishing here, but then the lodge closes because the weather gets too bad to fly in and out. We were the last guests of the season.

The bears wander down the spawning channel, watching out for fish:

At this time of year the species of salmon is the Pink Salmon, and the fish don’t seem to jump much. Instead, the bears dive in headfirst and fling themselves on top of them.

Missed.

It all looks a bit haphazard, rather than skillful, although I admit two of these three bears are inexperienced yearling cubs, with their mother:

In the deeper parts, they walk slowly on their hind legs scanning for a passing fish.

They will look underwater, too:

These shots show a bear fishing at dawn,

then one second later the moment of catch,

two more seconds to get a good grip,

and finally settling down for a meal:

They may eat in full view,

or retreat to the bushes.

The next shot is a grizzly near Spirit Bear Lodge, eating dead salmon that have already spawned:

If they are healthy and fat, they are picky eaters. They dissect the salmon, and the parts highest in fats and nutrition: the skin, the brain, and the roe (eggs). They leave most of the flesh, the parts we humans like to eat! Here is one eating, and what he left behind:

They often remind me of dogs, posing nicely for the camera,

or having a good shake

PS There is a side effect of the grizzlies’ taste for the roe, because they may then also inadvertently eat parts of the intestines. Salmon carry tapeworms, and these can get passed to the bears. There’s a photo which I’ve put at the very end so a squeamish reader can easily skip it. The tapeworm Diphyllobothrium latum can also transfer to humans who eat raw freshwater fish, and indeed I once had it (symptom free, and easily treated). Not recommended as a weight loss strategy.