Finally had a few minutes to go through some more of my shots from last week at Katmai NP. This area during salmon season is a target rich environment for photography. The bears know when the salmon are there and they show up in numbers to harvest the catch. For coastal brown bears the salmon run is their main source of food to build the fat reserves that they need to make it through the winter. I took the following shot just to show how many bears show up. There are nine in this frame and there were a total of 16 in view when I took the shot. Some of the less dominant bears fish further downstream and there were a couple visible in the bushes above the river sleeping off the heavy meal they just finished. None of the bears in this shot are the truly massive dominant males. These are your average bruins around 800lb (350kg) each.
In this next shot one of the truly massive (over 1000lb) bruisers is in the frame. For reference the bear in the middle of these three is the same bear at middle top of frame in the previous shot. Note the patterns of bald/molting patches in the fur. In the previous shot he is occupying the prime spot held by the larger bear in this shot.
The bear in the bottom of the previous frame occupied the same spot just downstream of that tree branch the entire time that I was there. He had an interesting method of fishing. I never saw him catch a fish but every time another bear caught one he would dash over, position himself downstream as the other bear ate its catch, and sit there woefully moaning while the other bear ate. Interestingly his tactic worked as every once in a while one of the dominant bears would strip the prime cuts from a fish then drop it for this guy to finish. Here is "Panhandler" in action.
It's not all salmon and roses at the fishing hole. All of the bears carry many scars from disagreements.
Here is a little more artsy version of a group scene.
I'll post another installment with more detailed single bear shots after I do some more editing.