Four times throughout the summer our bear monitor will spend four nights studying bear behavior at the falls platform. The platform closes to visitors at 10pm and doesn't reopen until 7am. This gives the bears a greater chance to eat fish without the constant staring of people and photographers. This time out I am lucky enough to be here when our monitor is doing a night study. We wait till everyone is off the platform then we set up our overnight gear which include sleeping bags and bug tents. Then it is time to watch the bears.
The salmon have not arrived in the huge numbers that previous years have had. The bears seem to know as not many bears have been at the falls to catch the jumping fish. Tonight we are honored with presence of four bears. Cinnamon who is one of the oldest bears in the park. He is a large bear but the years have been rough on him as he is very skinny, with his rib cage showing. He use to be one of our dominant bears but now he begs for fish and he is slow to get up and move. 747 who is a large dominant male is in the river just below the falls. He doesn't have a nickname but he is as big as a jet so 747 works for him. Scardybear, who is a big male but is very nervous around humans is here now that all the people have gone. Lastly, Enigma is here too. Scardybear and Enigma are on the far side of the river. Scardybear is fishing and Enigma is watching Scardybear.
Scardybear gets a fish in his mouth and Enigma moves closer. We watch as Scardybear moves up the bank to eat his fish with Enigma right behind him. They disappear from view behind the vegetation. From across the river we hear growling between the two bears. Then over the top of the vegetation rises the two males with thier paws wrapped around each other and mouths trying to bite each others necks. They disappear again. More growling then silence. A few minutes late Scardybear comes back to the river. Another couple of minutes we see Enigma return. We don't know who got to eat the fish but neither bear had any new scars on them that we could see.
We watched bears for over two hours until it got too dark to see across the river. We headed for our bug tents and a few hours of sleep. I thought I would be scared or that the bears would make so much noice that I wouldn't be able to sleep. But once in my warm sleeping bag, I fell right to sleep. Three hours later we were back up with the sunrise to see who was fishing at the falls.
Cinnamon had spent the night sleeping in the grass next to the platform and was still lying there when we started monitoring. For a while that was all there was. Then a new subadult showed up and ventured out in the river. He wan't there long because Scardybear arrived and chased off the younger bear. Scardybear was on our side of the river. He would never be there when visitors were at the platform. These are things as a wildlife biologist I need to know. Facts like this tell me that our presence is keeping some of the bears away from their major food source. It was a good night. Now I have to go back and be a bear manager so my team can get some time off. What a job I have.
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