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(5) WHAT CAN YOU WATCH BEARS DOING?

Few viewers are satisfied with just seeing bears. Bruins that merely graze or nap could narcotize a meth addict. What you’ll probably want to see and photograph are bears doing something interesting–for instance diving off shoreline boulders to catch salmon, skin diving after salmon, running after salmon or ground squirrels, digging for squirrels or tubers or clams, nursing cubs, playing, or fighting. Opportunities to see these things vary from site to site and seasonally.

Catching Salmon

Large concentrations of rich foods like salmon often attract several bears as well as wolves. Scraps left by those large predators are scavenged by smaller carnivores including foxes, mink, weasel perhaps even a wolverine. Avian scavengers include bald eagles, sea gulls, ravens, magpies and sometimes mallard ducks. Salmon streams* thus offer a great opportunity for seeing numerous bears and other wildlife. Another great advantage of such sites is that bears tend to be so well fed that they have no interest in you as a source of food.

* What is a “salmon stream”? Although salmon spend most of their life in the ocean, they evolved from freshwater fish. Indeed, they still depend on rivers and lakes for mating and for “rearing” of young. In general, the best breeding habitat is a river or beach with a gravel bottom through which cold, oxygen rich water is constantly flowing. Any river or stream or creek which salmon ascend on their way to breeding habitat is known as a “salmon stream.”

The best streams for viewing are those where catching is easiest and the fish are most abundant. Salmon are fast and agile. If the water of a salmon stream is more than 2 feet deep, even skilled ears seldom succeed more than once in 20 to 50 attempts. However, in shallow areas of a stream, where they are slowed down, and especially where scattered boulders leave salmon little room to maneuver, even unskilled bears can catch enough fish to keep their bellies drum tight. (One of my major challenges in rearing orphaned cubs was helping them learn to catch salmon and other prey. You can read all about their adventures in Beauty Within the Beast.)

Clamming

Clam digging occurs mainly during extremely low (spring) tides that occur for only a few days each month. Rutting activity – i.e., courtship, competition for mates, and mating – peaks during June. Sows with tiny cubs are easiest to see after the rut, during July and August. At any given site, bears may be abundant at the peak of a salmon run, but scarce otherwise. The timing of the peak may occur any time between May and October. Some sites have a series of run peaks, as one species of salmon after another runs upstream.

A bear clamming is more exciting than a bear grazing; better yet, bears on intertidal flats are so clearly visible that this can be a superb opportunity to observe their foraging skills and social behavior.

CLAMMING REQUIRES SPEED AND SKILL: Anyone who has ever dug for razors knows how quickly they can retreat out of reach. To succeed, you not only have to dig fast, but to the side of the clam so that your shovel doesn’t break its fragile shell – which is about as tough as a man’s thumbnail. Experienced bears avoid breaking shells both while digging out a clam. Novice or impatient bears (including some big boars) just eat a clam whole, shell and all; or they use their laws to rip open the shell, then get the clam meat mixed with shell and sand. More skilled bears, however have better techniques. Some use one claw to puncture the shell, and then to “unzip” it, exposing the meat. Then one or a few claws are used to extract the meat. That reduces the amount of shell and sand in their meal. A real “pro” however rests the clam on the sand, places a paw atop the clam, then slides its foot sideways, popping the top half-shell away from the bottom half. Many bears eventually master this trick; but I haven’t, despite numerous tries. The shell breaks each time I try to open a clam bear-style, and often even when I try to dig up a clam using my fingers. It’s humbling to try duplicating ursine survival skills.

If there are certain activities that you especially want to see, ask about this before you settle on where and when you will view.

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This sow approached to within 10 yards (meters), then lay down in a field of gorgeous purple lupine blossoms. There, she alternated between grazing and snoozing.