I've posted several pages of photographs and videos from my trip to Anan Creek, SE Alaska in July 2011. Below is a list of links for quick navigation.
My next blog posts will be related to my trip to Churchill, Manitoba in November 2011 to observe polar bears. There are still places available for this amazing adventure: for details see the Arctic Ecology Field Course item on this page on the Great Bear Foundation website.
Unless stated, the pages below contain still photos. If you don't have much time, I'd recommend the Black Bear Cubs and Brown Bear pages as a starting point.
I'm a stills photographer, and not expert at video, but the opportunity of spending an entire week out at Anan Creek in South East Alaska allowed to me take a few short video clips as well, using my usual digital camera. If like me, you love bears, I hope you'll enjoy them despite any technical shortcomings.
The clip above shows the interaction between two black bears.
This shows a black bear using the board walk at the bear observatory, common behaviour which means humans need to exercise caution!
This is one of a series of close up bears of black bears at the observatory: since they are habituated to humans, there's more opportunity to observe them from relatively close quarters.
Here's another close encounter: a short video like this does little to convey the magic of being able to see the individual hairs on their head.
This was taken on one of several gloriously sunny days I was fortunate enough to enjoy at Anan, which is one of the few places with higher average rainfall than my native North West England.
Another close encounter with a black bear at Anan.
The final series of clips show black bears fishing for salmon and eating them.
Above are two clips of black bear eating their catch of salmon.
Above are two short close up head shots of bears fishing. The next three videos below show successful fishing.
Finally, below are three videos where the bear didn't catch fish, but still it's interesting to see the look of concentration on their faces.
Here are some videos of brown bears, mostly including cubs, from Anan.
The four videos above show adult brown bears enjoying eating salmon.
Here we see a family of bears with year old cubs.
These videos are family meal time scenes. Notice that one of the cubs is dominant, and inclined to steal food from the other one, and indeed the mother.
The final sequence above shows brown bears fishing for Salmon in the Creek.
Before returning home to the UK, I visited a friend in Haines, flying from Wrangell to Juneau on an Alaska Airlines jet, then taking a small plane north above the Inside Passage. The pictures give a brief flavour of the landscape in South East Alaska and of the nature of my journey.
Juneau
Inside Passage
Haines Harbor
Chilkoot Lake
Inside Passage just north of Juneau on the way home.
I was tremendously lucky to spend a whole week amongst black and brown bears in an unspoilt wilderness. Here, I've attempted to capture some of the bears' personalities in close-up, intimate moments.
This bear is called Sweet Moma by the rangers. She was tagged about ten years ago, and found then to be over 20, so she's old in bear terms. She is however still a proficient fisher.
Anan is known for its black bear viewing, although I was fortunate enough to see brown bears every day too. The two species co-exist uneasily: black bears being wary of brown, but they are forced together in July by the abundant food source during the salmon run. The first two pictures below show a clash between two female black bears, when one approached to closely to a cub.
