This is Chico jumping onto a pink salmon in the creek upstream from the
cabin. ( all three photos are upstream)
Chico caught two at
one time.
Biscuit enjoying a fish
for breakfast.
(Click on any Image to see a higher resolution version)
I sometimes listen to the BBC or VOA (Voice of America) on the short wave radio. Maureen does not appreciate the buzzing and static so I usually listen at night, in bed, with a head set so she doesn't have to put up with the weird noises that accompany this type of signal most of the time. The last few days the news mentions the fire situation in Montana, Idaho etc. and President Clinton is going there to see what can be done. It is beginning to sound like the situation is getting serious and makes me wonder about how it is at the family ranch which is on the edge of the mountains only a few miles from the Montana border. The last I heard it was mighty dry. "Any smoke coming over the mountains yet"?, I ask in my e-mail. ----- The answer comes back that although there is a lot of smoke, there are no fires in sight yet, but the situation has everyone's attention.
A few days ago, I walked to the creek to get water. I put the pails down and hiked along the bank where the stream lazily winds around the flat with a very slow current. I saw Chico come out of the canyon upstream and lie down on a grassy bench with her paws hanging over the edge and she began watching me intently. I knew that she was waiting for me to have a look for spent sockeye salmon which sometimes come into the creek from the lake after they spawn. At this stage in their life, they don't swim very fast and if they are in shallow water the bears can catch them. I spotted a big male fish about (10 lbs.) in deep water but it was heading slowly to a shallower place. I looked at Chico and she was still watching me from her perch about 150 yards away, head up, staring.
Finally, the salmon got into the water about one foot deep and I made my special call to Chico. She got up and came like an express train straight to me. If someone had been with me who didn't understand what was happening they would have surely thought they were being charged by a grizzly bear. She had her head high, her ears up and her mouth partly open and she was running directly at me as hard as she could. When she got to within twenty feet of me I looked at the fish. Chico skidded to a stop three feet to one side, looking at the water and I pointed at the salmon which had a white patch on its back where some of its skin was already dying. Chico saw it and leapt into the water and in three bounds belly flopped onto it but it must have squirted out from under her and she lost track of it because of the silt they stirred up. By being up higher on the bank, I could see it heading down stream so I ran along the bank and when I got opposite the big salmon I pointed again. She came bounding down the middle of the creek until she saw it for the second time and took a big leap, this time she caught it and brought it up to where I was standing. I praised her. The way she looked at me I knew she was proud of our teamwork. I was also.
Another time, I found a dead salmon on the beach and called her. She came pounding down the lakeshore again right at me so I picked the dead fish up and waited for her. When she saw that it was dead and I was holding it she slowed to a walk and approached carefully, then took it from my hand very gently.
Why do I do these things? It was quite obvious she would have found this dead fish on her own because she was walking the beach. I didn't have to pick it up. Chico would probably also have found the fish in the creek or it would have died in a couple hours anyway and she would have then found it. The answer is that, although she does very well on her own, I do these things as part of my working out the limits of the trust between us. I want to understand this question to the very best of my ability while I have this one chance in my life to do it. She only relies on me when I indicate to her that I want to help. She demands nothing.
Maureen and I are very careful not to play tricks on Chico or Biscuit. We learned when they were young cubs that they hated to be made a fool of. This is always a silly temptation people have with animals. Dogs, as always, with their ability to put up with anything we dish out to them, never teach us humility. They don't call us on the stupid things we do to them. Because bears have to be very serious about finding food for the half of their life they are not asleep, they do not tolerate interference. What they do appreciate are acts of kindness and being considerate. Picking up the fish and handing it to her in no way is the same as hand feeding her a sandwich. It was just a friendly thing to do. I'm not yet sure of all the implications of feeding bears. What I do know is that there are ways it can be done and ways that cause total disaster. That is a separate study. What I am doing now is trying to understand what builds trust and what is likely to erode it.
There has been a huge run of Pink and Sockeye salmon coming up the river for about 10 days. I have never seen so many fish. The Pinks come to the west coast of Kamchatka every second year and they are the majority of what I see. A few days ago, I flew to check their progress and saw they had come to within two kilometers of the lake. I knew they would be here soon. We spotted Chico and Biscuit patrolling the shore, looking for washed up dead sockeye. Soon they came by where the plane is tied down and Maureen and I met them there. Their patrol rarely includes the river out flow.
When I called Chico she follows and this time Biscuit came too. Last year -- "our bears"(I have to get out of the habit of referring to them as cubs when they are well over 300lbs.), never had a good chance at catching salmon in the river so they were a bit out of practice when we walked with them to where the river drains out of the lake. They could see all the fish there but we had to go down stream a ways to where the water was shallower. It really paid off for them. They didn't quite know what to do--there were so many and they were not the usual spawned out weaklings they had been finding in the lake and creek. A fresh batch of sockeye were at the head of the line, very big and strong. It is not easy for bears to fish this section because the river bottom here has jagged stones with no sand between them. Instead there are holes with sharp edges which twist and tear at their feet when they chase. It was a circus of flying water and leaping salmon but they eventually caught a few. After a hour, we could see that there feet were so sore that they could hardly run anymore. I'm sure they will toughen up and be well fed from now on until denning time, in three months time. I wonder what they are going to look like after this growth spurt?
When they first began to understand that where we had taken them was such a bonanza they were beside themselves. Chico was shaking with excitement when she came by a big rock I was standing on. I am still puzzled why she did this, but she suddenly jumped up onto the rock beside me even though there was little room for both of us. She was standing against my legs when she reached completely around them with one arm. Any bump would have sent me into the sharp boulders and fast running water. I usually try to stay calm in these situations but this time everything felt a bit precarious and I couldn't help shouting "Chico!" She carefully unwrapped her leg from around my knees, gave me a funny look and jumped back into the river. I think it was a thank you for showing her such a wonderful place. She did it to me because Maureen does not tolerate her being that close and Chico respects that. This is not where they usually hang out.
During the four years, we have only seen them here one other time and have never seen Brandy in this section of river. It is a demonstration of how rigidly they use an area and not another. Interestingly, Chico has hardly left the area since then. Perhaps it was what it took to add an area to her home range. Biscuit has since discovered the pinks in the creek above the lake and she and Brandy are gorging themselves on them. Those two seemed to have worked out a truce but who knows what is going on.
-Charlie