Maureen in our kitchen
cooking.








Maureen washing our clothes.








Maureen spreading out the
sheets to dry.








Biscuit on one of her trips
by the cabin taken to day.

(Click on any Image to see a higher resolution version)

The weather holds. Even though there are days with fog and some hard rain at times, there is a feel of summer and a gentleness about the way it transforms into each change. We only need to light the stove for a short time in the morning while we have some coffee, or to heat water to wash our clothes. This is a wash day which requires an extra 10 pails of water from the lake, lots of scrubbing and hand wringing, and then some sun to dry them with. There is morning fog now but looking straight up, the sky has a blueness about it which suggests that it will soon burn off. The bed sheets are spread out on the pines which seem to absorb and give off heat and dry things quickly.

Biscuit came through the yard as we were having our porridge for breakfast. It seems to be part of her route around the lake now that she is catching the occasional salmon. There is no way we can keep up with her on these rounds that she is making unless we take the boat. She swims across bays and runs along the shore between her favorite fishing spots. It will soon become the time when food becomes an obsession with the bears here. Until now and for a while longer, they have coasted on the remnants of last falls fat. At least it appears that is what is happening although I have never seen it talked about by biologist.

A while ago, I added to a discussion about this on one of the "list servers" I subscribe to which I mentioned in an earlier entry. It is hard for me to tell whether these professional bear people agree with my observations. They don't respond to them. I do quite often hear the suggestion that bears in areas of abundant food are less dangerous than inland bears where salmon are not available to them. The general theme of one discussion was about what made bears dangerous. Part of the question was whether hunting grizzly bears outside National Parks could make them more dangerous to other people if a hunted bear (perhaps wounded in his or her lifetime) also spent time inside a park with tourists.

Here was some of what I wrote. The area where we are doing our study in Kamchatka could definitely be classed as one of the places where bears are generally well fed, but not always. There are years when there have been late salmon runs and very slim picking well into September. Because we work very close to our study animals we pick up on subtleties of the things that bother them. One thing I have learned here is that the fat they put on in the fall can be important to them into August the following year, much longer than I ever previously thought possible. We can watch it slowly being used up through May, June and July. During this time they eat lush vegetation and sleep a lot. This prolongs the consumption of held over fat. During this time they are also very mellow and nice to be around, but as soon as the fat is gone (usually about August 10th), their dispositions change; the requirements of hibernation start to get pressing. We then have to be more careful about how we interfere with their sudden seriousness for acquiring high fat/sugar content food. This shortfall probably happens with individual animals earlier, and some resourceful bears seem to retain fat until the salmon come. With the bears we raised from cubs (this is the fifth season with them) their frantic time starts every year in early August which corresponds with sedges, umbers and all the other lush vegetation becoming over mature and the period before the salmon, pine nuts or berries have arrived or are ripe.

There is about one month where we have to be much more considerate in how not to get in their way or interfere with food finding. With all the bears that we watch, playfulness with each other stops and this is also the time when siblings learn that it is an advantage to be on their own. It is interesting to see how they do not like to compete in finding what little food there is. It seems to be out of respect, not anger that they separate. We have learned that it is important to give all bears the trail during the lean times because not to do so is an imposition to them. We do it simply by stepping off to the side an appropriate distance to let them go by, the distance we veer away depends on how much shyness the bear is demonstrating. Young bears often get back together when food becomes plentiful again and once they put on some weight they will begin to play as well.

Writing this, I realize that other places in the world bears live, food availability differs, but it is important to remember that a bear in good salmon habitat is twice the size of one living out of reach of salmon. These coastal bears have to put on a least twice the amount of fat. Perhaps this evens things out. I don't know, but I would guess that food shortages, late in the season, always creates anxiety for bears no matter what species, or where they are. Perhaps this is a befitting time to have established a good relationship with them.

This brings us back to how they are managed. I really don't see why there would be much difference how you do it. If they are abused though hunting or adverse conditioning to fear, dislike, distrust, or perhaps in rare occasions, hate people, food shortage times could become especially dangerous to the innocent or otherwise. And how much extra care is put towards a bears immobilization and handling during these times? What about a bear having to completely learn about a new area and its food sources because someone complained that there was a bear near their neighborhood and demand that they be moved? Are considerations about the impositions of handling them at all, at certain times, always thought about when study programs are planned? I fantasize about a day in the future when there might be a handout at the entrance kiosk that reads " The bears in this park are not dangerous because they like people. Please read on to learn what you must do to keep them that way."

Maureen and I are going to try to be more consistent with our entries. I think we were going through a burnout period. The bad weather and Chico not showing up was causing me to loose focus. I will write some details about the ranger program and show you some photos of them and talk about why we think this is such an important part of what we do here. I keep meaning to write another entry about my flying. This is the ninth year I have managed to keep my "business aircraft" flying in the wilderness. In mid December 1992, I picked up the "home build" kit in Great Falls Montana. By April it was ready for the Spirit Bear project on Princess Royal Island on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. I would like to know if any other aircraft of any kind, in the history of aviation, has accomplished something like this.

- Charlie