The Big 5: Part 5: Brown bears

To catch up on Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 click: Denali National Park & Preserve "The Big 5"!

This story is one of the brown bear. This bear is known by several names: brown, grizzly, and Kodiak, but they're all the same species, Ursus arctos. I am going to refer to them as brown bears, since that's how the rangers at Denali refer to them. Throughout our 3 day visit, we had probably 15 sightings of brown bears. Most of them looked like this:

Through a 36X zoom, this is a sow (sitting up like a person) nursing two cubs.

The majority of our sightings were like this...little blonde blips on the mountain sides, off in the tundra. Those of use with long zooms and binoculars got the views. I'm impressed with my camera, as were others on our bus. I would snap a picture like this, then pass it around to show others what we were seeing.

The third day of our trip into the park, we took a shuttle to Kantishna which is a 90+ mile round trip into the park.

Once we really got out there, we were diligently watching out the windows of the shuttle for something on the tundra. We were quickly rewarded with:

Photo credit: Katie Boye

A mother bear and her 2 cubs...relaxing in the meadow! It was absolutely an amazing sight to see.

All was quiet for the first few minutes of viewing...

Then, Thing 1 and Thing 2 got a little rowdy.

Mom rolled over in exasperation...

...and finally had enough and got up.

The cubs took that to mean it was go time, and started ripping into each other as they were wrestling. This behavior allows them to experiment with their bodies, and practice their moves for potentially later in life when defending themselves against a competing bear. And they are siblings, and I know MY sister and I did our fair share of this when we were younger!

And all of that action really got things moving...and in this case, bears **** on the tundra :)

Yet ANOTHER awesome memory and pictures to accompany from Denali National Park and Preserve. I urge everyone who is reading this entry, to add DNPP to their personal bucket list and make the trek north. It's worth it. Even if you don't see brown bear cubs wrestling, you'll get to see amazing views like this:

Eilson Visitor Center, 7/23/2012



Update: Bears

Last week I posted an entry entitled: The bad with the good... you should read that entry first before this one so you're caught up to speed.

Today I spoke with Alaska Wildlife State Trooper Potter in Fairbanks. He was the responding officer to the incident regarding the bear I watched be dispatched. I was eager to speak with him, for no other reason than to understand the laws surrounding this situation.

He told me that the owner of the hostel was in fact given a citation for taking a bear out of season. I don't really understand this, and I think this was a case of  "there's no law that fits this specifically, so we'll cram it under one that's close"...does that happen?

So the owner of the hostel took the bear out of season. But there's an open season on black bears in that region, YET, the owner didn't have a valid hunting license. The owner was claiming a Defense of Life and/or Property ("DLP")  shooting was necessary. But his unsecured garbage receptacles don't qualify him to use that claim. And if he HAD a a valid license, shooting that bear IN the dumpster would have been legal. Kind of- it could have been considered shooting over bait. There is also no law that requires bear proofing... and business/private owners can not be held accountable for allowing bears free access to food/garbage.

So, he's paying a $250 fine. Unless of course he wants to contest it, then he goes to court, and I get called to testify. I have that video I mentioned in the previous entry, so there's really no question about what happened. He'll probably just pay it off to make it go away.

He did not get to keep the bear. The skin and skull are going to the state, the skin will be tanned and auctioned off. The meat went probably to a local food bank.

So, I don't really feel like this bear killed legally or good cause. There's nothing left I can do, other than write my letter to the BBB and urge the owner of the hostel to rethink his food and garbage storage before something more tragic happens.

The last thing the officer told me: "There are a gazillion [yes he said gazillion] black bears in Alaska, so try not to worry about it."

Why am I having such a hard time with this?

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On a better note, I FINALLY got big-sexy-Alaskan-mega-fauna on my Cuddeback Attack camera trap. This camera has been aggravating me all summer with it's lack of performance...but it FINALLY caught what I was looking for at the Funny River Weir:

That's a grizzly bear, folks! (Ursus arctos)

To the left of it is the trap that I work in often. The picture is really washed out because the bear is so close to the camera. The Attack flashes really bright, so there is some over exposure...but still awesome!

Below is a picture in the day time...

And that's all she wrote for today. Next entry will be the continuing story of critters in Denali!

The Big 5: Part 1

Over the weekend of July 21-23, my friend Katie and I visited Denali National Park & Preserve. It was a soul-soothing, spiritual, amazing experience. I've been to several National Parks (Acadia in Maine, Glacier in Montana, Rocky Mountain in Colorado among others), but none have really struck me quite like Denali.

As I mentioned in my previous posting, the National Parks Service Rangers and Staff are amazing. Informative, friendly, and truly have the Park's well-being and visitor safety first in mind.

Many visitors go to Denali with The Big 5 in mind: gray wolf (Canis lupus), moose (Alces alces), caribou (Rangifer tarandus), Dall sheep (Ovis dalli), and the almighty brown bear (Ursus arctos). I'm going to use the term "brown bear" even though they are technically the same as grizzly and Kodiak bears, but in DNPP they refer to them as brown bears.

People come to the park with hopes of getting a glimpse of these animals, from a bus, and getting that awesome "Nat Geo" shot.

I entered the park with hopes of seeing all 5, but also with hopes of seeing a wolverine (Gulo gulo), any of the ground squirrels: hoary marmot (Marmota caligata) or arctic ground squirrel (Spermophilus parryii), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), and especially a collared pika (Ochotona collaris). So I had a "Big 10"!

Of the true Big 5, I saw all of them. It was almost too easy, I was so surprised, and maybe we were extremely lucky. Actually, I KNOW we were lucky to see at least one of them

Of the second set of my wish list, I saw the arctic ground squirrels and a red fox. Squirrels fall right after black bear and tie with porcupine for me. I think they're A) adorable, and B) incredibly resourceful and SASSY!

I'm going to keep this entry brief, and follow up in subsequent entries with the story behind each sighting.


First sighting:

A gray wolf.

I'll be honest though, I'm really skeptical about this. When I first saw it, I didn't form an opinion. Everyone was saying wolf, even our bus driver. Then Katie turned to me and asked me for confirmation...and I said:

"Um...I don't know, it looks like a coyote to me. BUT, I have never seen a gray wolf before."

Really profound, right? I went along with wolf, because I didn't want to be the jerk on the bus, ruining everyone's hopes and dreams in this amazing National Park that's known for wolves with saying it's a (common pest to some) coyote.

I later described it to a ranger, and she accurately described back to me a gray wolf, and our recollections matched. Long legged, bushy tail, coloration...etc. I don't know though, I STILL feel like some would call this a 'yote. For my touristy sake, I'll call it a wolf. But I'm interested to hear opinions.

I borrowed this from JVN's blog (Backyard Beasts), and I realize different time of year and state, BUT...that's what a proper gray wolf should look like :)

Photo credit: John Van Niel

Thick, barrel-chested, gorgeous coat, gray/black/white coloring...


BTW, for what it's worth, this animal looked like a coyote to me too:

Red wolf (Canis lupus) at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, North Carolina

And this is DEFINITELY a red wolf.

Second sighting:

A caribou!

Third sighting:

Brown bear!

Fourth sighting:

Dall sheep!

A moose! (This is an AWESOME story...stay tuned :) )

And that's The Big 5!

Are you impressed? I was, by how close we got to the animals. Keep in mind I took all of these pictures from the shuttle bus. Yes, I have a 36X zoom...but they also came in close.

And I'll share a few pics of my other favorite mammals that I got to see:

Arctic ground squirrel :) How can you not smile at this little guy?

And finally....

A red fox....dressed in a really interesting outfit. I'm doing a bit of poking around and gently harrassing some Alaskan trappers and officials about color phases of the red fox here. More on this later!

After my last depressing entry, I wanted to share fun, happy stories of animals I got to see in the park. A final picture I'll leave you with is probably the most sought after "thing" at DNPP, and the most rarely seen.

Mount McKinley, or Denali.

20,328 feet: tallest peak in North America

I feel honored to have seen it and actually several times. This mountain will get it's own entry eventually as well. Talk about awe-inspiring.



Mama Moose and Shotgun Shootin'

In this entry I wanted to share with everyone one of our "non paying" residents of the camp I live in. She's a big girl, probably 8' tall, 1000#...and has a kid.

Photo credit: Kurt Wadenius

Moose-stang Sally and baby! Mama was named by Kurt, the wildfire firefighter who lives here...he sees them a lot and snapped this pic on Thursday, the day the calf was born. We have yet to name the baby, but we're all trying to think of something clever!

On Thursday and Friday of last week, I went through a bear behavior and awareness training. Since I'll be working in the bush with fish, the bears (grizzly and black) will often run into us. I learned both lethal, non lethal, and "less lethal" methods of deterring them. Lethal includes shotguns and rifles, and even the cracker shells or rubber bullets that can be loaded into the shotguns (the wrong placement could kill the animal). Non lethal includes: cracker shells, which are shells that detonate like an M80 60 yards out (have to be a good aim and get it between you and the bear...not behind the bear), and rubber bullets.

Rubber bullet and shell

Shotgun shell

Rifle shells

After sitting through a classroom portion, we were introduced to the firearms. I was the only one who had never held or fired a gun before, so I felt a bit out of my element. But, the biologist, Ken, who was instructing us was very patient with me. I feel like I need to defend myself constantly on the use of guns...and it's probably all in my head but I still say it. I didn't grow up with guns in the house, and so I was never exposed to it. I'm not a hunter by nature, too much of a soft-heart, but that doesn't mean that I am against guns.

So the next day, Friday, we went to the shooting range to get used to handling, loading/unloading, and shooting the guns.

Remington 870 shotguns

The targets

I think I did pretty well for my first time shooting and handling a gun. I was able to pull it up, get it in my shoulder, and fire off a round pretty quickly and relatively accurately on the still targets.

This was the moving target that we had to shoot at. It was rigged up on a pulley system, and someone would run with a rope and pull it towards the shooter. To be a designated firearm carrier, one had to get two shots within the "kill zone". It took me about 10 shells, but the last two made their mark. It was VERY empowering and exhilarating.

My still target: not bad if I do say so myself! I kept the poster as a reminder of how serious safety is..and it's pretty bad ass :)

I am probably the LAST person who would want to kill a bear. But grizzlies, and even blacks here, are very aggressive. Quick to defend territory and young. And working with fish out in the bush, we'll likely be coming into contact with them. A grizzly can run up to 35 mph! We were taught to use every resource available of non/less lethal means of deterrent before taking a lethal shot. But it can and does happen. Hopefully not to me though!

And this lovely bruise is what I have to remember my first time shooting a rifle by :)

There's more to the story about the moose, but the internet is aggravating me and it's getting late. More on Sally and baby tomorrow!