July 23

Jack, Janet, and I headed to the ranger office early so that we'd have an entire day at the Anan falls.   We would be joined by a bear behavior expert who had worked at Anan during the early years when scientists were just beginning to collect data on bear populations and behavior in the Anan creek area.  

There are two large sets of falls near the mouth of Anan creek.  Twenty years ago, most of the bears congregated near the upper falls where the salmon are forced to swim a narrow bottleneck in order to access their spawning ground higher up.  The bottleneck means easy fishing for bears.   Today it is the area surrounding the lower falls which draw the most bears, even though the salmon run numbers have remained the same.    The types of bears have also changed over time.  Twenty years ago, it was mostly black bears who frequented the area, with only an occasional brown bear feeding at the stream.  Now brown bears are seen as frequently as black bears and are, at times, the predominant species.  The number of brown sows with cubs greatly outnumber black sows with cubs which may indicate continued growth in the number of brown bears at the falls.  

We had an incredible day.   The number of bears in the area is astounding as was the size of the salmon run.  

We got back to town late.....not so late that we didn't have time for a pizza at the Marine Bar - great pizza to boot.