A female coastal brown bear just before she leaps from dry shore into a stack of Sockeye salmon where the waters of Wolverine Creek empty into Big River Lake, on the west side of the Cook Inlet near Lake Clark National Park. These bears spend weeks grazing on the fresh grasses in late spring and early summer, before the coastal salmon runs start. These coastal dwelling bears are very similar to grizzly bears, which live 100 or more miles inland, but they get much bigger due to plenty of food sources such as grasses and salmon. Lake Clark National Park is one of the largest areas in the world where Brown Grizzly bears are protected from hunting. While Wolverine Creek is located outside the park, there are many bears in the area which concentrate around Wolverine Creek when the salmon start to spawn. This popular summer tourism destination allows the few visitors lucky enough to take excursions from Kenai and Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula to visit Wolverine Creek to see not just one but many of these magnificent creatures, one of the largest land predators in the world, often while fishing for salmon themselves.
© Walleyelj | Dreamstime.com
