Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear Fishing 2

Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear
Brown Bear Fishing Golden Female and Cubs
Assorted Brown Bear Brown Bear Composites

Brown Bear on Bank X3794

A male Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear stands atop the bank looking for fish in Silver Salmon Creek.

The Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear lives in the coastal areas, as the name suggests.
The southern coast of Alaska has seasonal spawning runs of the five Pacific Salmon,
as well as a milder climate and a rich array of vegetation that allows the bears to grow
larger and live in denser populations than their inland cousins the Grizzly Bear, which
are otherwise classified as the same species. The Brown Bear ranges in color from
a dark brown through a light blond, and has a noticeable hump atop the shoulders.

Brown Bear Fishing X3848

Brown Bear Fishing X3850

A male Coastal Brown Bear chasing Salmon in the late afternoon at Silver Salmon Creek.

Silver Salmon Creek is in Lake Clark National Park, at the bottom of the Alaska Peninsula in
southwestern Alaska, on the west side of Cook Inlet between Chinitna Bay and Tuxedni Bay.
Located 100 miles south of Anchorage, Alaska, it is accessible only by boat or float plane.

Brown Bear Fishing X3852

Brown Bear Fishing X3857

The bear loses the fish in a turn, and rises on its hind legs to see where it went...

Brown Bear Fishing X3861

“Did you see where that fish went?”

Brown Bears are one of the most omnivorous of animals, and tend to consume a wide variety of foods.
They eat a variety of plants including berries, sedge grass, flowers, nuts, pine cones, roots and shoots.
Bears also eat winter-provided carrion, insects and grubs, birds and eggs, rodents, clams and crabs,
but Coastal Brown Bears feed mostly on Salmon during the five salmon spawning runs, deriving most
of their nutrition from the fish and eggs. The nutritious diet and the abundance of fish in the area make
Alaskan Coastal Brown Bears larger than their inland Grizzly cousins (males are larger than females).

Brown Bear Fishing X3863

A male Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear chasing Salmon in Silver Salmon Creek.

Brown Bear Fishing XL

A 1500 x 1845 version of the XL Composite (3000 x 3630)
showing a Coastal Brown Bear fishing in the early afternoon.

Brown Bear Standing X3865

Brown Bear Standing X3868

The male Coastal Brown Bear stands to search for Salmon in Silver Salmon Creek.

Brown Bear Standing X3874 M

A male Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear standing to look for fish in Silver Salmon Creek.

All of the landscape (horizontal) large version images linked from the thumbnails are 1500 pixels wide.
Portrait (vertical) images are 1200 pixels tall (1290 pixels with title bar). Images designated with an “M”
in the shot number are 5:4 aspect ratio, 1500 x 1290 with a title bar, or 1500 x 1200 without the title bar.

Images in this section are in several different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Gallery Collections page where a Gallery can be selected.

Images can be found in the following Galleries (Direct Links):

Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear
Brown Bear Fishing Golden Female and Cubs
Assorted Brown Bear Brown Bear Composites

Brown Bear Fishing X3933

The bear starts running in the hope that he will startle a fish...

Brown Bear Fishing X3938 M

Brown Bear Fishing X3939 M

... but it doesn’t work and he stands again to look for one of the elusive critters.

Brown Bear Fishing X3941

Brown Bear Fishing X3942

A salmon swims by and the bear is off and running again.

Brown Bear Fishing X3943

A male Coastal Brown Bear chases fish on Silver Salmon Creek in Lake Clark National Park.
You can see the surface trail left by the tail of the fleeing salmon at far left just in front of the bear.

Brown Bear Fishing X3952 M

Brown Bear Fishing X3953 M

The bear pauses after the fruitless chase, and looks a little embarrassed at missing his fish.

Brown Bear Fishing X3956 M

A male Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear watches for passing fish in Silver Salmon Creek.

Brown Bear Fishing X3988 M

Brown Bear Fishing X3989 M

Images in this section are in several different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Gallery Collections page where a Gallery can be selected.

Images can be found in the following Galleries (Direct Links):

Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear
Brown Bear Fishing Golden Female and Cubs
Assorted Brown Bear Brown Bear Composites

Brown Bear Fishing X4002

Standing in the creek wasn’t working for him, so the bear starts running again...

Brown Bear Fishing X4009 M

A male Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear poses for the photographer while running after fish.

Brown Bear Fishing X4012

Brown Bear Fishing X4013

A male Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear prances through Silver Salmon Creek while hunting for fish.
He caught a salmon on this chase, and took it to the shallows to shake himself off and eat his prize.

Brown Bear Shakeoff XXL

A 1500 x 1590 version of the XXL Composite (6010 x 6130)
showing the Brown Bear shaking off after catching a Salmon.

Previews of four of the six images in this composite are
on the Miscellaneous Bears: Portrait and Scenic page.

Brown Bear Fishing X4031 M

A male Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear surveys Silver Salmon Creek
for additional fish after eating the salmon from his last successful foray.

Brown Bear Fishing X3800 XXXL

A 1600 x 883 version of the XXXL Composite (12520 x 6573)
showing a Brown Bear chasing Salmon in Silver Salmon Creek.

Images in this section are in several different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Gallery Collections page where a Gallery can be selected.

Images can be found in the following Galleries (Direct Links):

Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear
Brown Bear Fishing Golden Female and Cubs
Assorted Brown Bear Brown Bear Composites

Brown Bear Fishing X2983

A male Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear walking in the shallows at Silver Salmon Creek.

The Salmon runs in Silver Salmon Creek attract a number of bears, and the normally solitary nature
of the Brown Bear changes due to the abundance of fish. The bears tend to tolerate other bears and
even humans in the area, although when one bear is fishing in a particular stretch of the creek, others
will avoid the area. When a large male arrives, other bears tend to rapidly scatter and leave it to him.

Brown Bear Fishing X2998

A male Coastal Brown Bear wades into Silver Salmon Creek in the late afternoon.

Brown Bear Fishing X3002

A Coastal Brown Bear takes off after a spawning Salmon.

Bears eat a lot of salmon during spawning runs, as they need to double their weight to allow them
to survive the winter in their den. While in the den, they do not hibernate, but their body temperature,
heart rate, and metabolic rate drops, and they do not eat, drink, urinate or defecate. They must build
up a vast store of body fat to survive while they sleep the time away during the long Alaskan winter.

In some southern areas of Alaska with milder climate (such as on Kodiak Archipelago 200 miles
further south, just east of the Katmai Peninsula), Brown Bears can remain active all winter. The
Kodiak Bears have been isolated from other species of brown bear since the last Ice Age,
and are the largest subspecies of Brown Bear. Larger males can exceed 1500 pounds.

Brown Bear Fishing X3005

Brown Bear Fishing X3006

A male Coastal Brown Bear chases a salmon directly towards the photographer.

Brown Bear Fishing X3011

A male Coastal Brown Bear stares intently at his prey as he chases a spawning Salmon.

Brown Bear Fishing X3012 M

A male Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear prances through Silver Salmon Creek while hunting for fish.

Images in this section are in several different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Gallery Collections page where a Gallery can be selected.

Images can be found in the following Galleries (Direct Links):

Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear
Brown Bear Fishing Golden Female and Cubs
Assorted Brown Bear Brown Bear Composites

Brown Bear Fishing X3016

A male Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear charges at the camera while chasing fish on Silver Salmon Creek.

Brown Bear Fishing X3019 M

Brown Bear Fishing X3020 M

Brown Bear Fishing X3022

This particular male liked to use this prancing rise when scanning for fish at the end of a run.

Brown Bear Fishing X3024 M

An M-sized (1500 x 1290) close portrait of a male Coastal Brown Bear at Silver Salmon Creek.

Brown Bear Fishing X3025

A male Coastal Brown Bear fishing in Silver Salmon Creek, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

Brown Bear Fishing X3000 XXXL

A 1600 x 840 version of the XXXL Composite (12015 x 5800)
showing a Brown Bear chasing Salmon in the late afternoon.

Images in this section are in several different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Gallery Collections page where a Gallery can be selected.

Images can be found in the following Galleries (Direct Links):

Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear
Brown Bear Fishing Golden Female and Cubs
Assorted Brown Bear Brown Bear Composites

Brown Bear Approaching Fishermen HS2297

A Coastal Brown Bear approaches a group of unsuspecting fishermen on Silver Salmon Creek.

The fishermen on Silver Salmon Creek tend to string caught salmon together and store them underwater
to keep them fresh while they continue fishing. Some of the local bears have learned this, and when they
get tired of chasing down spawning salmon, they steal some poor fisherman’s catch right off his line, or
more often they take the fish that a fisherman stored near the bank right off his stringer and eat them.

Brown Bear Warning Snarl X4053 M

This bear has stolen salmon off a fisherman’s stringer and warns the photographer to stay away.

Brown Bear Eating Salmon X4055

Brown Bear Eating Salmon X4059

Brown Bear Eating Salmon X4064

Brown Bear Eating Salmon X4070

A Coastal Brown Bear holds a salmon down with its claws and rips it to shreds with its powerful teeth.

Brown Bear Eating Salmon X4112 M

The bear keeps an eye out to make sure the pesky photographer won’t snatch his fish.

Brown Bear Eating Salmon X4138

An Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear eats a salmon which he stole from a nearby fisherman.

Images in this section are in several different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Gallery Collections page where a Gallery can be selected.

Images can be found in the following Galleries (Direct Links):

Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear
Brown Bear Fishing Golden Female and Cubs
Assorted Brown Bear Brown Bear Composites

Brown Bear Eating Salmon X4164

The salmon is reduced to bits and pieces, but the bear is still aware of the photographer...

Brown Bear Warning Snarl X4165

... the bear gives one more warning snarl before deciding he doesn’t want the remains of the fish.

Brown Bear Silver Salmon Creek X4180 M

A close portrait of an Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear at Silver Salmon Creek in Lake Clark National Park.

Brown Bear Silver Salmon Creek X4181

Brown Bear Silver Salmon Creek X4183

The bear heads back to the water after eating the salmon he stole from a fisherman.

Brown Bear Silver Salmon Creek X4188

The bear reaches the creek and looks around for another fisherman, but
after the close encounter with this bear and his snarling and tearing the fish
into shreds, they all left the area quite rapidly, taking their stringers with them.

Images in this section are in several different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Gallery Collections page where a Gallery can be selected.

Images can be found in the following Galleries (Direct Links):