Wrangell-Anan Trip, Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Wow! This was an awesome trip. We had to go by boat for almost an hour into the wilderness to this wildlife preserve to view bears fishing for Salmon in the Anan Creek.

This is the sign on the observatory. You are allowed 30 minutes, five of you at a time, to walk down to a blind across the creek from the bears and photograph through an opening in the blind.

This shows the difference between brown & black bears. Anan is one of the few places where brown and black bears can be seen together. Now, they might not be that close together but they can both be in the same stream. They don't get along.

This is the boat and the dock at the city of Wrangell where we board for an hour's trip to Anan.

The guy with the gun is Jim Leslie, the captain of the boat. He led the way on the trail, carrying the gun and his helper followed the rear of the group with a pepper spray bottle. They can find bears on the trail at times. We had to all stay close together on the trail (and watch where we stepped; bear skat).

This is another rain forest area. Isn't it beautiful!

This female bear is fishing. Look at her intense concentration.

She caught one!

She then carried it away, maybe for her cubs.

Here are some photos of bear cubs.

I loved this log with the moss on it! Actually it was a huge tree.

Oops, looks like he slipped off the log!

Another bear is fishing.

This is a cub fishing where the female was fishing earlier. He was not successful.

This is the cub again.

Look at him straddle those rocks!

This bear caught the fish right out of the creek. That creek was really flowing fast, too!

Here he is with his fish. Note how the paw is used to help.

Now he carried his fish off somewhere. One bear stole a fish from another.

These are salmon trying to get up over this waterfall! Makes me tired just looking at them.

This bear just quickly snapped his mouth under water and came up empty-handed!

This cub is kinda hiding from this old male, whom I call Scarface. Often male bears kill cubs.

Here they are again. The cub is making sure he is not outside his protective rock. Scarface is on the right. He was good at fishing.

Another bear is a successful fisherman!

Another one catches one right out of the creek.

The side of the creek had a cliff with all sorts of caves and holes behind rocks which made for nice safe areas for the bears. This bear is coming out of one.

Here you can see some of those areas behind the rocks.

This bear is heading toward one of those cave-like areas.

She may have a bear cub in the back somewhere. Or she just wants privacy while she eats! :-)

She is still going up the hill to take that fish somewhere.

This is a big ol' bear! No other bear tried to steal a fish from him.

This is a brown or grizzly bear. She is coming down to fish.

She has the same intensity of concetration.

She catches one right out of the creek right below us.

She takes the fish up the bank to a rock where she ate it. She was really good at fishing!

A big bear gets a fish!

Now he eats the fish! I guess you could call it sushi! :-)

This bear is good at eating! They are all hungry all the time.

He eats and eats and eats! Then he catches another fish and eats it.

I think this is old scarface, the bear I named for my own files. His face has a lot of scars.

This young bear is deep into the creek to find fish.

Most of the time, Scarface just ate other bear's fish they had left, but this time he caught his own!

I think this is either a mother & her cub or two cubs of different ages. They are both watching the older bears.

This cub was right near the observation place and was within 5 feet of us.

These two bears looked like they are about to fight. Notice all the pieces of fish on the rock.

This female bear had a big flap of skin sliced open on her left rear hindquarters. We were told that bears heal very well and that it would be completely healed by next year. Sure looked painfully sore. You can see the flap of her hide that is hanging loose. The ranger said she was scared to death of the other adult bears.

The injured bear was a good "fisherbear"!

See this bear on the walkway we came up? This is why the captain carried a gun with him. Imagine finding this on the trail!

There are three bears in this photo; see if you can see them!

This bear was really good at pouncing into the creek!

He is very animated!

Success! He got one for all his efforts!

I am not sure what he is doing here, backing into the rocks like this!

He is back in the creek again for more fish.

He caught another one. This whole process was fascinating to watch.

He has this one by the tail.

Here are those crazy cubs again. The one looks like he is caught on the branch.

I think this is Scarface again with a big fish.

How many bears can you see here?

How about here?

Don't you love the bear straddling the rock?

This is another grizzley, down stream from the waterfall where the black bears are fishing.

This grizzley is not even full grown! I think he is going to be pretty big! Our captain said he could potentially grow about 3-4 times this big. Grizzleys who dine on fish along the coast have been known to weigh 1,200 pounds or more by fall when they are ready to hibernate.