Kodiak is synonymous with a sub species of grizzly bear - the Kodiak Brown Bear. When you mention Kodiak, people think big bears. Actually, the 'Kodiak' brown bear is pretty much the same creature as all the other brown bears that live along the coast of the Gulf of Alaska. Coastal brown bears are simply bigger than normal because they eat better than interior grizzlies. Lots of salmon, berries and dead beached whales on the coast.
Fat bears tend to be happy bears, and the coastal brown bears are a lot more communal than other grizzly bears. In the Interior of Alaska, away from the coast, bears tend to be hungrier and more stressed. These bears are notoriously ornery. The fat, dumb (oratorically speaking) and happy coastal bears are far more forgiving of intrusions into their space. Often you'll find literally hundreds of bear sharing a river while fishing for salmon. These bears don't mind sharing space with humans - as long as everybody follows the 'rules'.
The funny thing is that Kodiak, 'home of the bears' (high school motto), is actually not the best place to view bears. On Kodiak practically the only place to watch bears is on the salmon rivers. At Katmai National Park on the Alaska Peninsula the bear viewing is phenomenal in a variety of settings. You can watch bears graze the new grass on the tidal flats like cows in May, dig clams on the beaches in June, and fish for salmon in August. And the bears are used to bear viewers. Both the bears and the guided viewers have established a rapport over the last decade or so, and both sides know 'the rules'.
In June 2005 when I went over to the Peninsula on a bear viewing trip with Lisa and Gregg I was amazed at how close we got to the bears. I was expecting brown dots on the hillside, and got bears up close and personal. I think the bears thought of us as another group of bears. It was really cool. I highly recommend that anyone who visits Kodiak takes the time to take a float plane over to Katmai National Park to view the bears.
Patrick
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