“Splosh”, the bear belly flopped on top of the salmon with a giant splash. As the spray cleared a wet golden head emerged with a fat salmon dangling out of the corner of his mouth. The large male bear carried the fish to the bank, held it under his curved claws and ripped off chunks of rich red flesh. Within seconds the fatty skin and eggs were devoured and the entrails and head were left to the waiting gulls who wasted no time in clearing up. The bear moved back to the river, his ears pricked up and his gaze fixed on telltale ripples moving upstream. He bounded back into the flow, his strong legs carrying him at a good running pace through the water. The salmon scattered, their fins waggling furiously on the surface, their bodies rattling against the stony bottom. The bear changed direction mid-run matching his prey’s course. This time he smashed the fish against the river bed with a powerful swipe. I sat on the bank 50 metres away feeling like I was in the front seat of th e best
nature documentary ever on TV. The bear didn’t care that I, and 7 other people were clicking away as he chased down his meal.

My whole day was spent sitting by the river watching brown bears chasing fish, gorging themselves until they could barely move then digging themselves a hole in the gravel and flopping into it for an afternoon snooze. Some were more successful than others. “Busy bear” spent a lot of time zigzagging around and splashing to no avail whereas one older bear spent an hour flopped on his back on the bank with a paw in the air before nonchalantly taking 10 measured steps into the river and pinning a fish to the bottom within 15 seconds. Another bear was snorkling, where he walked in the river with his head under the water, presumably looking for the fish.

The highlight of the day was probably watching two bears play fighting in the water 30 metres away from us for about half an hour. Such power, but gentle fun as well.

I would thoroughly recommend a visit to Hallo Bay bear camp to anyone who wants to see bears natural behaviours up close. The camp has been here 27 years and the bears are used to people in small groups on the bank keeping a low profile. They’ve never been hunted and because the camp is really careful to keep all of their food away from the bears, they don’t associate us with food. And the food here is yummy. Roast beef last night, fleshy ribs tonight and ask manner of fresh cakes and fruit. The whole experience feels like a real treat after slogging into headwinds for a week.

Www.hallobay.com