Tag Archives: Kodiak Island

Lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus)

Fish, Kodiak Wildlife, , , , , , ,

Lingcod are not true cod and are not related to Pacific cod or pollack. Instead, lingcod are the largest members of the greenling family. Adults average 10 lbs (4.5 kg), but they can grow to over 80 lbs. (35 kg) and measure 60 inches (150 cm) in length.

A lingcod has a long body and varies in coloration from gray to brown to green or even blue on the back and sides and lighter on the stomach. It is covered with dark brown or copper blotches arranged in clusters, and it has a prominent light-colored lateral line and large, cycloid scales. A long dorsal fin spans the distance from behind the head nearly to the tail. The front part of the fin is spiny, while the posterior portion consists of soft rays. A notch connects the two sections. The anal fin has three spines. The head and mouth of a lingcod are large, and the mouth holds 18 big, sharp teeth. The head does not have scales.

Lingcod are found only on the west coast of North America, from the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands south to Baja California. They are common throughout Southeast Alaska, along the outer reaches of the Kenai Peninsula, around Kodiak Island, and in Prince William Sound. They normally live nearshore around rocky reefs from depths of 30 to 330 ft. (10 – 100m), but they have been found as deep as 1000 ft. (300 m). Lingcod usually stay in the same area and often near the same reef for their entire lives, but researchers have tagged lingcod that have moved as far as 500 miles (800 km) from where they were first observed.

Female lingcod mature between three and five years of age at a length of 24 to 30 inches (61-75 cm). Males mature when they are two years old and approximately 20 inches (45 cm) long. Lingcod nest in rock crevices or ledges with strong currents. A male leads a female to the nesting area, and the female lays between 150,000 to 500,000 eggs. The number of eggs a female lays increases with both size and age. Once the female lays her eggs, she leaves the area, and then the male fertilizes the eggs and stays to guard the nest. In Alaska, lingcod begin spawning in early December, with peak spawning from mid-January to mid-March. The eggs hatch within 5 to 11 weeks, so most hatching takes place between mid-March and mid-May.

Male lingcod guard the egg nests until the eggs hatch. If left unguarded, egg nests are usually decimated within 48 hours by rockfish, starfish, sculpins, kelp greenling, and cod. The adult male must be aggressive to drive away invading fish and invertebrates, and if something happens to him, the eggs will not survive. Unfortunately, this aggressive behavior of the male makes him more vulnerable to predation by seals, sea lions, and anglers.

Lingcod larvae measure ¼ to ½ inch (7-10 mm) in length. They drift with the ocean currents and grow rapidly by eating copepods and small fish. By mid-summer, when they are 3-inches (150 cm) long, they settle on the bottom in kelp or eelgrass beds and feed on juvenile herring or other small fish. They remain in shallow water as they grow. Adult lingcod are voracious predators and grow rapidly. They feed on invertebrates and fish, including other lingcod who are nearly their same size. Lingcod continue growing until they are 12 to 14 years old. Male lingcod have a maximum lifespan of 14 years, while females can live as long as 20 years.

Lingcod are popular for both sport and food. Their flesh is white with a natural blue-green tint. The blue coloration disappears when cooked. The flesh is dense and mild tasting and is high in protein, minerals, vitamins, and omega-3 fatty acids. Lingcod are taken by subsistence, sport, and commercial fishermen. Because they are so aggressive, they are excellent fighters for sport anglers.

Lingcod are highly susceptible to overfishing. Anglers can easily find lingcod because they live nearshore in shallow, rocky areas, and since they are so aggressive, they readily hit a lure. Once a lingcod population is overfished, it doesn’t recover for a long time. Because lingcod can be easily over-harvested, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game conservatively manages the lingcod fishery. To protect spawning females and nest-guarding males, sport and commercial fisheries are closed during the spawning and nest-guarding periods. Also, minimum size limits have been established to protect immature fish, and finally, catch limits are restricted.

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Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. If you like audiobooks, check out her audiobook version of Murder Over Kodiak. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.

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Sunshine

Living in the wilderness on Kodiak Island, Writing, , ,

Ahh, sunshine! Finally, we’ve had a week without clouds. When the sun shines on this lush, green rainforest I call home, no place is more beautiful, and a day of sunshine makes me forget all the cloudy, rainy days preceding it. We have had a cool spring with almost no sunshine until now, and I was beginning to wonder if I would ever see the sun again.

June is “work” month here at our lodge on Kodiak Island. It is the month we paint, fix, clean, and garden in preparation for our summer bear-viewing and sport-fishing trips. A day of sunshine means it is time to rush outdoors, grab a brush and spread paint until exhausted. June is also one of the rainiest, foggiest months on the island, so we cannot afford to squander sunshine on decadent activities such as picnics on the beach or hikes in the woods. Nevertheless, I enjoy the sunshine, and after a week of hard work, I am also looking forward to the forecasted rain in a few days!

This time of year, writing is a luxury, and I have to steal a minute here and there to write a few lines. While my mind bursts with story-telling and promotional ideas, I don’t have time to follow through on them. I recently began publishing my murder newsletters on Medium, an online publishing platform. Here is a link to my first article. While this is the wrong time of year to give myself a new job, I was excited to have an additional outlet for my writing, and I couldn’t wait to see if people would read my stories on Medium. I dreamed of thousands of new readers, but now, I’ll be happy if my article receives a hundred views.

I am eager to get back to writing my next novel. I’m excited about the story, and I love writing fiction. My writing focus this summer, though, will be to finish the edits on my wildlife book. I hope to send it to my publisher this winter.

I have been thinking about my blog posts for this summer, and I plan to focus once again on fish. Of all the posts I have written, my most popular one is, “The Difference Between Atlantic and Pacific Salmon.” I guess this means folks are interested in fish, and since I love talking about fish, it’s a topic I’ll embrace. I have a halibut post planned for next week, and then I’ll jump into the troubling issue of the sudden decline in Pacific grey cod.

Please send me any questions you have about fish species in the North Pacific, and I will investigate the answer and write a post about it. I will be happy to write about fish biology, fishing regulations, and fishing techniques.

I know I don’t say this often enough, but thank you for reading my posts. I appreciate you! Now, it’s time for me to get outdoors, enjoy this sunshine, and paint something.

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Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. If you like audiobooks, check out her audiobook version of Murder Over Kodiak. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.

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Kodiak Bear Management

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Wildlife management most often involves managing humans. Research allows biologists to understand the needs and habits of wildlife, and this research hopefully leads to management policies to enable human populations to better coexist with wildlife. Wildlife management is never easy, and Kodiak is no different from anywhere else. Various user groups attempt to pressure wildlife managers into making decisions to further their particular interest, and managers struggle for a balance to try to accommodate a variety of users while protecting the wildlife and the habitat.

On the Kodiak Archipelago, I am proud to say the management of bears and their habitat is not only done well, but it is done so well, it is considered one of the best models of wildlife management in the world. The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge managers, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the native corporations, and the citizens of Kodiak work well together to safeguard bears and protect their habitat.

History has shown us that protecting wildlife habitat is often the most difficult aspect of wildlife management, whether there is oil to be drilled, copper to be mined, trees to be cut, or roads and houses to be built, economics often wins while wildlife loses huge chunks of critical habitat. Brown bears require large tracts of wilderness to survive, and as the human population grows, it becomes more and more difficult to protect the bears’ home from economic and residential development.

The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge is the largest intact, pristine island ecosystem in North America. The Refuge encompasses 16 lakes, 117 salmon streams, wetlands, grasslands, shrublands, Sitka spruce forest, tundra, and alpine meadows. This habitat supports 250 species of fish, birds, and mammals, including 400 breeding pairs of bald eagles. It supports 3000 bears, and an estimated 3500 bears live on the Kodiak Archipelago.

One of the stated purposes of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge is to conserve fish and wildlife populations and habitats in their natural diversity, including, but not limited to, Kodiak brown bears, salmonids, sea otters, sea lions, and other marine mammals and migratory birds.

The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1941 in response to concerns by bear hunters for the health and survival of the Kodiak brown bear population. The original mission of the Refuge was “to protect the natural feeding and breeding range of the brown bears and other wildlife on Uganik and Kodiak Island.” Without the strong lobbying efforts of hunting groups, it is doubtful the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge would have been formed. The sale of bear hunting licenses and bear tags on Kodiak generates over $250,000 annually, and much of this money is used for research and habitat protection.

Bear hunting on Kodiak today is very tightly regulated. Each year, 4500 people apply for the 495 available bear-hunting permits. Of these 495 hunters, approximately 175 are successful, and 75% of the bears killed are male. All hunters must check in with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game office in Kodiak before going into the field, and they must check out with Fish and Game before leaving the island. Every bear killed must be inspected by an Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist before it can be taken off the island. Because these strict regulations have the overwhelming support of guides and residents, illegal bear hunting on Kodiak is rare.

Perhaps the most telling fact proving the Kodiak bear and its habitat are well managed is the 3500 brown bears currently living on the Kodiak Archipelago. Biologists believe this is the largest the Kodiak bear population has ever been.

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Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.

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Have Kodiak Bears Changed Their Feeding Behavior?

Kodiak Bear, Kodiak Wildlife, , , , , ,

Last week, I discussed a recent scientific study chronicling Kodiak bear feeding behavior during the summers of 2014 and 2015. I pointed out that while the study fascinated me, I was less enthusiastic about the flood of inaccurate leaps in logic following the publication of the research. Please refer to last week’s post if you haven’t read it, so my post this week will make sense to you.

I invited most of the authors of the study, Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge officials (the research was in part supported by the Refuge), and other biologists and guides on the island to read my post and share their thoughts on the study. I was curious to know what others who work in the field on Kodiak thought about the flood of publicity over the past few months stating as our climate warms, Kodiak bears are changing their feeding behavior and are abstaining from salmon while they eat their fill of elderberries. While I didn’t get many replies here on my website, I did receive several e-mails, and without mentioning any names, I will share some of those with you.

I know I just said I wouldn’t mention any names, but I do want to state that Dr. Deacy, the lead researcher on the project, sent me a very nice e-mail soon after I asked him to look at my post. He was on a deadline for another project but said he would respond in more detail when he had time. He couldn’t have been nicer, and I exhaled a long, slow breath when I read his response because Dr. Deacy has been generous with his time in explaining this as well as other, recent bear research to me. I didn’t want to anger him or anyone with my critique of the study.

One of the other researchers on the study was not as thrilled with me, and he seemed to think I was personally attacking him and the other biologists. I admit I am partially to blame for his anger because I stated scientists sometimes seem as if they are in a bubble. He equated this statement with me saying scientists never come down from their Ivory Towers – a term I did not, nor would not, use. After his message, I was afraid to look at my e-mail for the next few days, but the rest of the replies I received were positive.
Biologists and guides alike felt the conclusions stated in this study opened the door to the wild, speculative media reports following it. Two people mentioned an important point. Some Kodiak bears spend most of their lives in alpine regions on the island and eat neither elderberries nor salmon. As with humans, what bears eat varies from one area to another and from one individual to the next.

I hope most people who read articles with titles like, “Kodiak bears go vegetarian,” will stop for a moment and question such a wild claim. I applaud wildlife research and think this research is necessary, not only to understand the magnificent wild animals who share this planet with us but also because this research points the way to appropriate wildlife management decisions. I don’t, however, believe research should ever be done to prove a case. The point of research should be the search for truth.

Speaking of wildlife management, next week I will write about bear management on Kodiak Island. Thank you for reading my post.

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Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.

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Genetic Studies and More Kodiak Bear Research

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Last week, I discussed early studies on Kodiak bears, and this week I want to continue by talking about more recent research, including some troubling genetic studies.

A 1996 genetic study questioned whether Kodiak bears should be considered a separate subspecies from other Alaskan brown bears. A 1998 study on the genetic diversity of North American brown bears indicated genetic diversity among Kodiak bears is much less than it is for other populations of North American brown bears. Several of the bears sampled on Kodiak had identical genotypes. A study by Paetkau and colleagues further explored the genetic isolation of Kodiak bears from other Alaskan brown bear populations.

A 2006 report for the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge illustrates that Kodiak bears have extremely low levels of genetic variation at neutral nuclear microsatellite markers. The level of genetic variation in Kodiak bears is much lower than the variation found in any other brown bear population. Furthermore, this low level of variation is not only found at neutral markers but also in nuclear-functional genes. While the Kodiak bear population is presently healthy, this low genetic variability makes this population susceptible to novel parasites and pathogens that may somehow reach Kodiak and infect bears.

Bear research is ongoing on the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. Yearly intensive aerial surveys yield population counts, and aerial stream surveys determine the number of bears on certain streams and study the population profiles of the bears on each stream (the percentage of single bears, sows with newborn cubs, sows with one-year-old cubs, etc.).

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is studying the population characteristics and habitat use of brown bears on Afognak Island since the movements and ecology of Afognak bears are not well-understood.

In 2010, William Leacock headed a two-year project near Karluk Lake on the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge to collar and track several Kodiak bears. Each bear in the study was fitted with a GPS collar to broadcast the bear’s location at hourly intervals. A Refuge pilot with an antenna attached to the wings of his plane flew over the bears and picked up the GPS signal from the radio collars of each bear being tracked. A crew member then downloaded these GPS points onto a laptop. From this information, the researchers were able to study the detailed movements of each bear and record the preferred habitat, food preferences, and bedding choices of each animal. Once the GPS data were collected in the field, volunteers hiked to the exact locations where each bear had been and recorded the types of food plants available in the area as well as other pertinent information. The goal of this study was to quantify behavioral responses of Kodiak bears to resources that vary in time and space (such as salmon runs and berry production). Dr. Leacock and his associates also studied how fluctuations in abundance of salmon at various streams near Karluk Lake influenced bear movements and exploitation of those streams.

Next week, I’ll discuss a new study that is both fascinating and controversial. I hope to invite the researchers on the study as well as guides who have been watching bears and their behavior for years to read my post and comment on it. Maybe I can get a lively discussion started! Be sure to check back often.

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Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.

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Relationships between Kodiak Island Refuge Users and Bears

Kodiak Bear, Kodiak Wildlife, Mountain Goat, Sitka black-tailed deer, , , , , , , ,

How have deer and goat hunters and bear viewers impacted Kodiak bears? This is my third and final post about the complex relationship between humans and bears on Kodiak Island.

Deer Hunters

In the early 1980s, the Sitka black-tailed deer population exploded throughout the Kodiak Archipelago. As a result, the length of the deer-hunting season as well as the bag limit for deer increased. For several years, each hunter was allowed to shoot seven deer. Bears quickly adapted to this new, easy source of food, and conflicts between bears and deer hunters increased in frequency. A questionnaire filled out by hunters indicated 21% of all deer hunters had threatening encounters with bears, and as many as 26% lost deer meat to bears. A heightened emphasis on hunter education and ways to avoid bear encounters has helped solve this problem. Today, the bag limit is three deer per hunter, but bear/deer-hunter encounters still occur.

Goat Hunters

The mountain goat population on Kodiak has also rapidly increased within the last decade, and in many areas, permits for hunting mountain goats have gone from a restricted drawing to an open registration. Several goat-hunter/bear conflicts have occurred in the last few years, but goat habitat is difficult to reach, so there are fewer goat hunters than deer hunters and therefore fewer goat-hunter/bear conflicts than deer-hunter/bear conflicts.

 

Bear Viewers and Photographers

The interest in bear viewing and photography has steadily increased on Kodiak since the 1980’s. The Refuge classifies bear viewing as “non-consumptive” use as opposed to “consumptive” use by bear hunters, but “non-consumptive” is a misleading term. Bear viewers can be very disruptive to bears and the habitat, and their impact or potential impact is not easy to measure or predict. The challenge the Refuge has faced in recent years is to learn how to limit the impact of non-consumptive users on bears while allowing as many people as possible the thrill of watching a Kodiak bear in its natural habitat.

Bear viewing on Kodiak occurs almost exclusively in the summer months when bears are concentrated on streams or in shallow, saltwater areas at the heads of bays, feeding on salmon. Bears must consume large amounts of protein and fat in the summer to sustain them through the following winter’s hibernation. It is especially critical for sows with cubs and pregnant sows to receive adequate nutrition.

Bear viewers can force bears away from prime feeding areas. This impact is difficult to measure, and it is likely bear viewers or photographers will not even realize they are impacting the bears, because some bears are more tolerant of humans and will stay and feed in their presence, while other bears will leave the area as soon as they detect humans nearby. These less-tolerant bears may then be forced to fish in less-productive areas or at different times of the day when tides and light conditions are not as good.

Management Decisions

Biologists are now studying and trying to understand the impacts bear viewers, sport fishermen, rafters, and hikers have on Kodiak bears, and they hope to use what they learn to develop regulations to manage these impacts on Kodiak bears and their habitat.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to cover past and present scientific research on bears, including one recent controversial study.

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Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.

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Humans and Bears on Kodiak Island from the 1960s through the 1980s

Kodiak Bear, Kodiak Wildlife, , , , , ,

Last week, I wrote about the early relationship between humans and bears on Kodiak Island. Over the next two weeks, I’ll tell you the rest of the story.

Over the 1940s and 50s, the government of Alaska denied ranchers’ requests for stricter predator-control measures against bears, but policies changed in the 1960s when the Alaska Department of Fish and Game worked with ranchers to pursue and kill bears suspected of killing cattle. The Department of Fish and Game went so far as to quietly hire two WWII fighter pilots to shoot bears with a semi-automatic M-1 Garand rifle mounted on a Piper Super Cub aircraft. A group of irate Kodiak hunting guides informed Outdoor Life, and the magazine ran a sensational cover story titled “The Kodiak Bear War.” In 1970, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game decided it was not appropriate for the agency to be involved in a predator-control program on brown bears and it ceased its relationship with the ranchers.

Also in the 1960s, the number of sport-killed bears greatly increased, causing the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge to enact stricter hunting regulations and seasons, and by the mid-1970s, a well-regulated permit system was in place.

During the 1970s and 1980s, concern and research focused more heavily on Kodiak-brown-bear habitat. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law on December 18, 1971. As a result of ANCSA, local native groups on Kodiak selected as their land much of the coastline of Kodiak, the Karluk River drainage, and several other smaller islands in the archipelago, causing the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge to lose control of 310,000 acres of prime bear habitat.

In 1979, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission began working on an environmental impact statement for a proposed hydroelectric project and dam at Terror Lake on the north end of Kodiak Island. The public and various agencies were concerned the project would disturb bear denning and feeding areas, and finally, a settlement was reached in 1981, providing funds to support research on project impacts on salmon, mountain goats, and bears. This agreement established The Kodiak Brown Bear Trust, which is still a source of funds for brown bear research and habitat protection. Research indicated the hydroelectric project had few long-term negative impacts on bears, and the project supported highly beneficial research.

On March 24th, 1989, the Exxon Valdez spilled eleven million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound. As the oil spread, ocean currents carried it to Kodiak, killing seabirds, eagles, sea otters, harbor seals, and killer whales. Oil washed onto the beaches, causing habitat destruction and resulting in reduced salmon runs in the following years. I have read several articles stating no bears were directly killed by eating oiled birds or animal carcasses, but I believe this statement is inaccurate. I personally saw two dead bears on remote beaches during the summer of 1989, and while necropsies were not performed on the animals, it is unusual to see a dead bear on the beach, and I think it is likely their deaths were directly linked to the contaminated beaches and the oiled bird and animal carcasses that had drifted onto those beaches. Furthermore, if I saw two dead bears, it is not only possible but probable there were more. The vegetation on Kodiak is very dense in the summer, so it would be difficult to spot a sick bear if it wandered into the brush and died. One positive development from the oil spill was that much of the money from the Exxon Valdez Settlement Fund was used to buy back Refuge lands and critical bear habitat previously lost due to ANCSA.

Next week, I will explore how deer and goat hunters and bear viewers affect Kodiak bears. The debate over how much humans should be allowed to impact wildlife will never end. While it would be wonderful if animals could roam free with no interference from humans, consumptive and non-consumptive human users provide the necessary funds to protect wildlife and the habitat.

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Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.

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Kodiak Bear Cubs

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A Kodiak bear cub fetus develops for only two-and-one-half months, so the cubs are very underdeveloped when they are born. No other mammals except marsupials have such immature offspring at birth. The cubs weigh 1/400 to 1/1000 of what they will weigh as adults. If the same were true for humans, a grown man might weigh as much as 8000 lbs. Cubs are born at such a premature stage of development because the mother must provide nutrients for her unborn young while she is in hibernation and not eating. She provides these nutrients by breaking down her body protein, which causes her to lose muscle mass. If she carried the cubs longer, she would lose too much muscle mass and would not be able to move by the end of hibernation. While a shorter gestation period produces underdeveloped cubs, the mother maintains enough physical strength to be able to care for her offspring. Cubs continue to develop after they are born.

At birth, brown bear cubs are nearly helpless. They can detect temperature changes and move closer to their mother to seek warmth, and they are also able to find the sow’s nipples to nurse. They weigh about one pound (.5 kg) and are blind, deaf, and unable to smell. They are covered by a fine hair and are toothless, weak, and uncoordinated.

A brown bear sow has three pairs of nipples. She may nurse on her side in the den but normally nurses in a sitting or partially-reclined position after emerging from the den. A bear’s milk contains an average of 33% fat, as compared to human milk which contains 3.5% fat. Bear’s milk consists of 11 to 15% protein and 0.3 to 0.6% carbohydrates. Due to this diet of rich milk, brown bear cubs grow rapidly.

A cub’s eyes open about four weeks after birth, and he begins to walk at six weeks. A Kodiak bear cub’s weight doubles every two months during the first year. The cubs are completely dependent on nursing for 24 weeks and may continue to nurse for as long as 82 weeks.

On Kodiak, most cubs stay with their mothers for three years, and nearly half of all Kodiak bear cubs die before they leave their mothers. Causes of death range from starvation, accidental separation from their mother, deliberate abandonment by their mother, fights with other bears, accidents, and infanticide, most often, but not always, by large boars.

Researchers have postulated that the reason for infanticide, the killing of the young of one’s species, is so the male can eliminate the offspring of another male, bring the female into estrus, mate with her, and pass along his genes to the next generation. While this theory might prove true for some species, it doesn’t make sense for bears. For one thing, bears are seasonal breeders in the spring, but boars often kill cubs in the summer when the female cannot go into estrus again. During the mating season, a boar would have to kill all the cubs in the litter for the mother to go into estrus, and even then, the female would not become sexually receptive for several weeks. Unless he waited around for the sow to be ready to mate again, the boar who killed the cubs probably would not be the bear who eventually mates with the mother. Also, females are sometimes the perpetrators of infanticide.

A friend of mine saw a large male bear walk up to a den, stick his head in the den, pull out a cub, shake it to death, and continue on his way. It is difficult to coordinate the actions of that boar with any biological theory. We humans often feel the need to understand the purpose behind every animal behavior, yet we do many things with little or no purpose in mind.

Next week I’ll write more about bear biology and behavior. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

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The Pink Salmon Return

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The pink salmon return to Kodiak was huge this summer, boosting the local economy, providing food for animals ranging from seagulls to killer whales, and offering a fish and wildlife lover like me a thrill.

I consider the life cycle of a Pacific salmon to be one of nature’s most fascinating enigmas, and I often wonder how a fish evolved such a complicated existence. Salmon face so many perils in their short lives; I’m amazed any of them manage to make it back to their birth streams to spawn.

Salmon lay their eggs in the late summer or early fall, just before the rainiest part of the year here on Kodiak. We often have rain for several days in a row in September and October, swelling the small streams and rivers to more than twice their natural size. The force of this excess water rushing downstream can wash the eggs from their nests before they have a chance to hatch. The flooding may also cause the river to change course, and when the flooding subsides, salmon nests that were previously underwater might now lie in a dry streambed.

A harsh winter can freeze the lower parts of a steam, killing the eggs or the small alevins after they hatch. Ice can also scour a river, taking salmon eggs with it as it moves downstream to the ocean.

Once a fry emerges from the gravel of the streambed, it is a tasty morsel for nearly any fish bigger than it is. It must sneak downstream at night and huddle with other young salmon nearshore in the ocean while it grows and readies itself for a trip to sea.

As a salmon grows larger, its chances for survival improve, and in the open ocean, it has fewer predators. Once a salmon begins its migration back to shore toward its home stream to spawn, though, everything wants to eat it. A pink salmon must dodge seals, porpoises, sea lions, sharks, killer whales, halibut, eagles, bears, humans, and other predators. It is not uncommon for us to catch a salmon while sport fishing and find the fish has marks on it from a commercial fishing net or a seal bite. I always feel bad for a fish that has escaped a net or a seal only to be caught by us.

While a salmon swims this gauntlet of predators on its return to spawn in its birth stream, it is undergoing incredible physiological transformations. Its color and shape changes, its kidneys must adapt from a saltwater environment to a freshwater stream, and it stops eating while its digestive system degrades. During the last few weeks of its life when it enters its natal stream to spawn, the salmon must draw on its stored energy reserves. After it spawns, its organs shut down, and the salmon dies a slow, ugly death.

I look at a salmon in the river in the fall. It is often covered with fungus and is so weak it can no longer swim against the current. While it is a sad sight, I can’t help but admire the fish. It made it home to spawn. It may not look like it, but this salmon is a survivor!

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I am excited to announce the e-book of my novel, The Fisherman’s Daughter, is now available for pre-order.  

                                                                  

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Summer Update

Fish, Kodiak Bear, Living in the wilderness on Kodiak Island, Orca, , , , , ,

This week, I would like to give you a summer update. Last week, I wrote about the difficult spring and summer I have had, but I didn’t want to leave things on a negative note. I began writing my last post a few weeks ago, and since then, I have gotten stronger and am beginning to recover the use of my muscles. Lately, I’ve been going out on the boat nearly every day with our summer guests; although, I will admit I’m not much help.

While I have been challenged by the physical demands of my job this summer, spending my days with our guests and the wildlife of Uyak Bay has done much to repair my psychological health. Mike took the above photo one day when a pod of Orcas fed and frolicked near our lodge. An abundant, sustained pink salmon run this summer has provided food for everything from Orcas to bears to eagles. Our fishermen have also enjoyed catching salmon.

Soon after my return from the hospital (you can read about that drama in my last post), a group of Australian guests involved us all in an interactive murder game, lasting their entire stay. The game was great fun and had us each trusting no one else in camp. It did not surprise me when Mike (my husband) won the game by murdering the most people. As if my summer hadn’t already been bad enough, Mike even murdered me!

The most uplifting news for me this season was to learn that a sow we have watched for the past eight years showed up this summer with three newborn cubs. The sow was badly injured by another bear when she was very young, and her rear end was flayed open. The injury was so bad, we didn’t think she would survive. We were happy and surprised to see her the next summer, and while the scar has faded over the years, it is still obvious. She has always been a favorite bear for us and our guests because she seems to like to perform in front of us, often catching a fish and then turning toward the photographers, fish held high while the cameras whir. The walls in our dining room are covered with photos of bears, and many of the photos are of her. As the years passed, and she appeared by herself summer after summer, we assumed she was a barren sow and wondered if the horrific injury she received when she was little more than a cub had anything to do with her inability to reproduce. We couldn’t have been more surprised when she showed up this summer with three tiny cubs trailing behind her, and I immediately began e-mailing some of our past guests to tell them the exciting news. From all accounts, she is a good mother, and all those years of fishing on her own have made her a proficient provider. She still doesn’t seem afraid of us, but she keeps her distance from humans now because she has more than herself to worry about.

We still have several weeks left of our summer season, and if nature follows its usual trend, fishing will peak in late August, and bear viewing will get better every day right up until our last day of the season in mid-September. Every year, nearly 50% of our guests are returnees, and this year is no exception. We love the mix of returnees and new guests, and I like to think of it as old and new friends.

No matter how bad the first part of my summer was, I knew things would improve once I climbed onto our boat, the Mary Beth, and began enjoying adventures with our guests.

You can read more about our lodge at www.munseysbearcamp.com .

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