This sow brown bear with four cubs has been seen regularly over the past few days. Anan Creek

Pack Creek Update

As July comes to a close, both the Chum and Pink salmon are plentiful in Pack Creek. The bear viewing has been consistent with most visitors seeing several bears during the course of their visit. There is a sow with two spring cubs and a sow with a yearling cub that have been frequently observed fishing in the viewing spit area. The trail to the tower has been the sight of a few encounters with bears just off the trail feeding on salmon berries. Bears are actively feeding in upper creek with good viewing from the tower.

These two unrelated cubs have provided some entertaining viewing for many visitors. They both have an incredible amount of energy and enthusiasm for wrestling and chasing each other. The smaller cub is a yearling and that's his mom in the background. The other cub is a two and a half year old female that was reluctantly kicked out by her mom at the beginning of this season. She struggled with being on her own for a several weeks, with numerous attempts to get back with her mom. The mom, however, was persistent in chasing her away and sending a strong message to her that she needed to embrace her newly gained independence. These two cubs engaged in some play behaviour last summer, but this season they've ramped it up a level, providing some really interesting and amusing viewing. The yearling's mom is generally tolerant and passively watches on as the cubs play. Though a few reprimands, in the form of growls, have been handed out to the older cub when things got too rough.

The two eagle chicks appear to be doing well and growing up fast. It is likely that they will be leaving the nest sometime in August.

Water is up at Anan

Anan Creek is running high and fast making it a bit trickier for bears to catch the pink salmon.
The bears are here though and yesterday we observed fourteen black bears and two brown bears.

Bear Viewing is Heating up at the Anan Wildlife Observatory!

      The first Pink Salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) were sighted on 27 June 2011.  Since then, the salmon have begun to stack up in the deeper holes and push toward the bears' favorite fishing holes.  Steady rain fall from the 29th of June till the 4th of July greatly increased the flow of the creek and bears were present in the area, however, fishing was very slow and the bears did not stay in view for very long.  The nicer weather from 5th of July to the present has marked a steady decline in water levels and increased fishability of pink salmon.  The increased fishability of the pink salmon has resulted in multiple black bears (1 to 10) in view at one time along with several individual brown bears present around the lagoon area. 

      There have been lots of activity under and around the deck as black bears scope out the fishing holes and what other bears are around.  Anan is playing host to 3 brown bear mothers this year (2 mothers with cubs of the year and 1 mother with year old cubs)!  A couple of adolescent bears have been sighted at the mouth of the creek, however, are uncomfortable with much human activity. 

      The eagle activity has picked up in the past week, with more arriving daily!  Lots of interactions between individual eagles as they jockey for fish scraps left by successful black and brown bears.

Boboli, a black bear that has been seen at Anan since the mid-1990s, has 2 cubs of the year and have been under and around the deck.  This has provided excellent pictures opportunities for visitors of Anan.

Boboli comforting her destressed cub.  This cub got separated for about 5 minutes and it took a while for Boboli to calm it down (i.e. stop calling).

Nootka with her 2, one year old cubs.



Sweet Cheeks fishing while her 2 cubs of the year mill around waiting for the next fish.

Pack Creek Update - The Chum Have Arrived

The first Chum salmon have arrived at Pack Creek and with that bear activity should increase and become more consistent. On Tuesday, July 5 we observed fish at the lower creek near the viewing spit headed upstream. By the next day there were a fair amount of fish jumping near the south spit and two bears were observed from the Tower. Both bears were fishing but neither appeared to be successful. In the last two days the bear activity has picked up somewhat though most visitors so far have seen at least one bear during their visits. Viewing has been a bit better at low tides and incoming tides will tend to push fish up the creek which will probably increase the chances of observing bears fishing. In the last few days we have seen a sow with two spring cubs and another sow with a second summer cub. On the flight back to Juneau we saw Patches (see previous Post) and her spring cub just to the north of the creek. The eagle chicks in both nests appear to be doing well and getting larger.

Young female bear near viewing spit (7/6/11):


Young female near viewing spit (7/6/11):

Fishing near the Tower (7/6/11):

Eagle chick and parent in viewing spit nest (7/6/11):

Pack Creek - Patches and Spring Cub

Pack Creek - Eagle and Chicks from Viewing Spit Scope