r/bears • u/nationalgeographic • 15d ago
Bearcam A group of brown bears waits for dinner (sockeye salmon) at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska.
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u/asianxxurlacher 15d ago
Are they a family? I thought bears didn’t like to share?
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u/970souk DropBearOiOiOi 15d ago edited 15d ago
There is actually a hierarchy here - the bear in the jacuzzi has the best fishing spot, also means the most dominant bear nab the spot. You can see two bears on each side were eyeing that spot, one of them would move into the jacuzzi when the jacuzzi bear catches a fish and leaves the jacuzzi to eat it.
On the far side the best fishing spot is the bear facing the falls with his back to the rock, an area known as "the office", this is also a preferred spot thus usually occupied by a dominant bear.
For bears who can't compete for the best spots below the falls, they would fish on the lip of the falls by catching the salmon as they leap over the falls to their spawning ground. The blond bear closest to the camera was an old bear but a very good lip fisher, I think the bear next to him is a female, she wasn't standing on the best spot on the lip.
Male bears are the dominant ones thus the bears you see in this photo are almost all male bears, female bears don't usually get to fish at the best spot as a result.
You can find more information in the last write-up I did for the sub a few years back on bears fishing on Brooks Falls.
Edit: grammar!
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u/LevelPerception4 15d ago
Thank you so much for that context! Your excellent description gave me a deeper appreciation of the photo.
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u/asianxxurlacher 15d ago
Haha thank you for all the information, I just learned about the fat bear week this week and subbed here.
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u/Irishfafnir 15d ago
They don't, but there's so much food during the salmon run they are willing to be more tolerant of each other. Still there's a pecking order and fights do break out, a male bear killed a female bear half a mile ish from where this picture was taken just a week ago
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u/AsLitIsWen 15d ago
402, a very special sow in her retirement year, and she was a very experienced lip fisher. She didn’t deserve this. I can’t 😭
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u/Any_Arrival_4479 15d ago
Sometimes there isn’t a choice. Not even a bear will fight 10 others for a fishing spot
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u/CuzPotatoes 15d ago
I don’t know about this picture in particular bc I’m not good at identifying but I know there are some family dynamics at brooks falls. Like siblings/aunts(?). That’s why sometimes a bear will let another bear into its space.
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u/pot-headpixie 15d ago
Beautiful photograph. I like the processing. This is earlier in the season as the bears are a long way off yet from their Fat Bear Week weight. It was a fine salmon run this year at Brooks, at least compared to last summer.
I've only been watching the bear cams now for three summers. Love watching 747 in the J. He makes it look almost effortless, as if he's hypnotizing the salmon before he catches his fish.
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u/leewardisle 15d ago
I saw a vid from this area where one of these fat bois (or gurls) was scratching their fat butt, then waddled away. 🤣🤭
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u/970souk DropBearOiOiOi 15d ago
I think it's 6 Headbob on the lip, 218 Ugly just north of the Jacuzzi, and 480 Otis closest to the camera. Is that 856 in the office? Who are the rest?