A few more Alaskan brown bears!

I've just started editing some of my photos from our Alaska trip so here are a few more brown bears which I photographed at Brooks Falls in the Katmai National Park last week.

The Alaskan Salmon run the bear gauntlet!

Sockeye Salmon spawning.

After a couple of years in freshwater and up to 3 in salt water the Sockeye Salmon return to the rivers of their birth to spawn.

They do this en-masse when the river conditions are right and somehow this strategy seems to work.

Maybe the sheer number of fish overwhelm the predators..... the bears certainly get their fill but the fish still seem to be here in vast numbers.

Everywhere we look we see salmon, alive and dead. The beaches, streams, rivers and lakes are teeming with dead and dying fish.

Not only were there Sockeye, but Pinks, Coho, and Chum Salmon.

Here are just a few images, sometimes gruesome, although I like to think of them as artistic!

The male Sockeye with its hump.

The male Sockeye with its hump.

These Alaskan Brown Bears can grow up to 900 lbs on the rich salmon diet.

More bears

Just a quick update as I wait in the airport at Oulu for my flights to Helsinki & London Heathrow.

I'll hopefully add some more pictures later.

The last 2 nights we spent 14 hours each night in hides for the brown bears in the Finnish-Russian border areas.

Here are a few pics for starters!

3 hours later.
I'm really bored now  waiting for my flight at Helsinki so have uploaded some more bear pictures but don't dismay as there are still many hundreds still to come!

Wild brown bear

Wild brown bear

Wild brown bear with numerous mosquitoes!

Wild brown bear sniffing the air for food or danger...probably food!

Young bear scratching

At the scratching tree