Lots and Lots of Bears

Check it out - It's an early Thanksgiving feast for the bears on the south end of Kodiak.

I first saw the top photo in late August when two geologists visited the museum on their way back from a trip to Chirikof Island. They showed me pictures of the conditions out on Chirikof and then blew my mind with photos of bears eating a whale that had washed up on the South end of Kodiak. They took the photos from an airplane on their way back. In the posted photo (top) I count 47 bears, but they told me that there were at least as many more sitting on the hillside. In another photo that I do not have they said they counted 90 bears.

A few days later my boss, Sven Haakanson flew by the same carcass and took more pictures (bottom). By the time Sven flew by there were fewer bears, but the tide was out and he got better pictures of the whale. Can you imagine the smell!

Anyhow, the photos have taken on a life of their own. The Kodiak Daily Mirror published one of Sven's photos and I've found the photos taken by the geologists posted on internet hunting forums. No one on the internet really seems to know the whole story, and it seems the pictures are well on their way to becoming 'internet legends'.

I've seen washed up whales before with bears eating them, but never the number of bears seen here. Funnily enough, according to the bear biologist the only area on the island where the bear population is DOWN is the same place where this photo was taken. I bet there are so many bears on this carcass because of poor berry crops and salmon runs in that area. The whale may well be the only good source of food for the bears in that area.

Photo Credits: Top - John Sandru, seismologist. Bottom - Sven Haakanson, Jr., Museum Director.