Watching Brown Bears Catch Salmon

When evening came we visited Pavlov's Bay (insert obligatory dog / saliva / pscychology joke), where we lucked into a classic Alaska moment: watching a pair of brown bears catch salmon at the base of a waterfall. The salmon would try to spurt across the shallow riffles, with their backs sticking out of the water, and the bears would bound over and try to grab them. We saw each bear catch four or five salmon apiece. Several other salmon managed to escape after brief periods in the bears' control.

Unfortunately, these inconsiderate bears waited under almost dark to start their snacking. Most of our photos turned out to be pure black. But one did provide some detail after aggressive work in Adobe Lightroom. The white stuff is the waterfall, and the center-right blob is Mr. Bear.

And a very impressive bear he was. Also a shy one. When he caught a salmon, he would usually carry it off into the bushes to feast in private. His colleague (not pictured) was more confident about eating in public.