WildView™

January 23, 2015

Brooks After the Surge

- as seen by -

Jonathan C. Slaght @JonathanSlaght

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Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska, is renowned for its runs of sockeye salmon: blood-red torpedoes that fling themselves up these cascades in a wild dash to spawn before dying. During the peak salmon run in July, dozens of grizzly bears famously crowd these falls to gorge on the vulnerable and protein-rich fish.

But with every peak comes a decline, and by August the migration wanes and most bears blend back into the forest with the advent of berry season.

Here, a sole individual watches the water almost mournfully, as though refusing to acknowledge that the salmon run, like he, is past its prime.

Canon Rebel XTI

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