Continuing my Alaskan bear photography adventure in this column. Over a two week period during late August, I was joined by two good friends and wildlife photographers traveling to several remote wilderness bear camps to photograph Alaskan Brown Bears. This consisted of boarding several small aircraft with all our gear and flying into remote camps located in either Katmia or Lake Clark National Parks.
Each day we would get up early, pack up our gear and head out into the bush in search of bears. The only problem was it rained nearly every day. This is fairly common weather in coastal Alaska at this time of year and we were prepared for it. As you can imagine, photographing in the rain with high tech and expensive digital cameras and lens is always a challenge. But none the less, we headed out every morning with hope in our hearts of capturing some amazing moments in the life of a coastal bear. We were not disappointed.
One day the three of us were along a small braid of a large river. The stream was barely 12 feet wide and only a foot or so deep. A female bear and her cub where fishing this small section of river. The mother was very skilled at catching fish, but the fish were not very abundant so many hours would go by before any action. The mother would stand by the river watching for any signs of the elusive Silver Salmon.
We were sitting in some tall sedge on the edge of the stream waiting for the female bear to run down the stream so we could capture some action images of her fishing. One time she turned off the main stream and started to move up a very small tributary that entered the main channel at a right angle. As soon as she moved into the small channel we lost sight of her so we immediately got up and moved to see up the channel. What we saw was a bit concerning. The female had apparently gone up the tributary far enough so that now that we saw her she was running back down straight towards us. Behind her, submerged up to its neck in the water, was a large male grizz, also coming down the creek towards us, only moving much slower.
It was obvious what the female bear had on her mind. She was getting the heck out of there. Soon as she hit the main channel she turned and scooted down the creek with her cub in tow. By now the male bear was right on top of us. I mean right on top of us, about 30 feet away. He climbed out of the creek, shook off this massive body sending water flying in all directions. He turned and gave us a look. At this point I became uncomfortable. It was obvious there was nothing we could do to get away from this bear at this time. This big male bear was within a half a second charging distance now and there was nothing we could do about it.
Suddenly the bear turned and defecated. The combined smell of the feces and secretions from the scent glands combined into a wall of pungent odor. Instantly we were almost knocked down with the odor of this male bear. He was sending a strong odiferous message. I looked around seeing about six female bears in the river valley stretched out before us. Each of these bears was now painfully aware of this male and all where high-tailing it down the river towards the ocean as quickly as they could.
It’s amazing how just one male bear could clear out a normally peaceful river valley filled with congenial fishing female bears in just a few seconds. After eyeing us up, the male bear slowing and most deliberately moved down the river valley. Lumbering along in what looked like slow motion.
Having survived our close encounter just moments before we had no choice but to follow this bear to see if we could get some better images of him. He paused several times along the river bank and looked back over his shoulder at us. The focus on our cameras locked on and we were able to captured some wonderful images of our big boy. High fives where in order and the three of us celebrated our good fortune. The encounter was our main topic of conversation for a long time after.
Photographing bears in the Alaskan wilderness is a thrill of a lifetime. I can’t wait to return next year for round two. If you are interested in joining me for a photo tour, give me a shout. Until next time…
Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com