I converted one of my bear pictures into a “bear portrait” with Photoshop! It’s a bit of a quick edit at this stage but an interesting effect with a few simple changes. You can see the original in my bear gallery here.
I wrote in the guest log at the sanctuary that it was hard to put into words how I felt about my 6 nights living with the McNeil bears. Aside from the fact that those of you who know Paul McNeil and have heard his bear joke will enjoy the obvious irony in the name of the location, this was one of those life experiences that has no benchmark. It is quite simply unique. You can read everything you need to know about the sanctuary by clicking here so I won’t spend time describing it in detail. However, I will re-iterate that the bears are truly wild, there are no fences around the sanctuary and no fences within it. The reason they come to this area during the summer is to fish. Access is by permit only through a lottery system and the boundaries on maps are expected to be respected by back country travelers. The campground for visitors is the only area where bears are not allowed and I stress the words “not allowed” because there are no fences around it. Over time most bears learn to respect the imaginary boundary. Others are asked to leave politely by the guides! Bear etiquette is described in a previous post of Taxidialogue but at McNeil it becomes possible to really appreciate the rule of standing your ground. We saw bears as close as 20 or 30 feet away without any fences. Why is this possible? Because they are wild bears that are not conditioned to associate humans with food and the guides take care not to surprise them. If bears are surprised their reaction is a defensive one as with any other animal particularly if a mother with cubs is involved. With that exception, they generally only become a threat to humans if we feed them whether it be deliberately or accidentally. When this does happen they are usually killed although some are given one chance in certain areas through relocation and tagging. The people I spoke to says this rarely works unless they are transferred to an island far enough away such that they are unable to swim back. As I think I stated earlier it is why they say in Alaska and elsewhere that a “fed bear is a dead bear”.
On the flight back we flew past Volcano St. Augustine in the foreground and Mt. Iliamna in the background.
The float planes have a two hour high tide window to arrive at and depart from the sanctuary. I landed on the seaward side of the spit and left from the lagoon side. Where they land depends on the wind and tide. I had good weather on both arrival and departure so didn’t get wet at all!
For choice of lens as with anywhere else there is no right or wrong answer as it depends on your personal goals. I used a 500mm on a full frame Canon 5D camera (would look like an 800mm on a non-full frame digital) for many of the bear pictures but everything from wide angle up can be useful especially if you have good weather for landscapes for example or you just want to include people as I have here. On a non-full frame camera, 200-400mm should be good for similar shots to those in my bear gallery if you like to fill the frame. My experience was early season when the bears are more spread out and the salmon haven’t yet arrived at McNeil falls. From talking with the guides it appears you walk around a bit more at this time of year so if you do bring a large lens just be ready to carry it! (I think it is worth it!) With the walking I felt you could reasonably label this experience as a “back county bear safari.” Later in the season visitors tend to walk to McNeil falls and stay there most of the day.
The group watches bears digging for clams on the mud flats. I don’t know whether the bears actually get caught by the tides but in another area on the seaward side of the spit I saw a mother swimming back with her cub on her back after the tide had come in.
One of the guides, Doug, leads a group of visitors to join our group already out in the field. You can see he is armed but no guide has ever had to shoot a bear since the sanctuary was established.
Eagles and bears may share the same space though bears are clearly in charge.
Bears learn to fish from their mothers and some are better at it than others. The fish landed on the bears head in this case! At this time of year the red salmon are running along Mikfik Creek and most of the bears fishing are relatively young. Evidently the older bears wait for the chum salmon to arrive at McNeil falls.
Bald Eagles generally feast on the scraps of fish that are left by the bears but sometimes they’re not as lazy and actually fish rather than scavenge. This one picked up the fish but couldn’t carry it far and had to protect if from other birds not to mention keeping an eye on nearby bears.
