Travel Notes | The farthest north—Alaska (8)—bears appear, please be aware

A lot of photos are coming soon.

I have written so many issues about Alaska, so I might as well write an article about bear watching in Katmai Park in 2012. I found the hard drive and looked through the old photos. I immediately wanted to give up. There are too many, many, many, many, many more photos. If you finish selecting them, you can read the original ones. We can't afford to spend so much time shrinking. Fortunately, I wrote a post on Shitou's site in the souhu digital forum. The photos that were reduced according to the posting requirements are still there. Just use them for illustrations. It's smaller for viewing. If you want a larger picture, send me a private message.

So many bears look chaotic, right? Let me tell you a trick, and everything will be clear immediately: you can call the golden retriever in the front Klinsmann, the one in the back Platini, the fat man on the left Ronaldo, the one wandering out on the right Robert Baggio, the gatekeeper on the waterfall His name is Dasayev.

Still can’t remember clearly? So the one who scored on the top is called Yao Ming, the one in the middle is called Kobe, the one in the back is Jordan, the big guy on the left is LeBron James, and the one on the right who is distracted is called Da Zhi. I remember them all this time. Of course, if we name them Bingbing, Yuanyuan, Zhiling, and Manyu respectively, well~~~~~, forget about this look.

To start, go directly to the picture:

Katmai National Park and Preserve (Katmai National Park and Preserve) is located in the southern part of Alaska (Alaska). The park is famous for the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and brown bears. . The park covers an area of ​​19,122 square kilometers (from Baidu Encyclopedia) , which is almost 30 times the size of Singapore. The park is free and open, but it is always at the top of the list of national parks with the least tourists.

Brooks Fall here is world-famous for brown bears catching salmon on the waterfall. Discovery Channel, National Geographic, BBC, etc. have filmed documentaries here. This park is the largest brown bear sanctuary in the world, with a population of more than 2,000 bears.

There are five kinds of bears in the world. There are three kinds of bears living in Alaska, namely brown bears, black bears and polar bears. The other two are sun bears and giant pandas. The Alaskan brown bear here is the largest carnivore in the world. It is more than three meters long and weighs 500 to 600 kilograms. It is bigger than a polar bear. It is agile and can run at a speed of 56 kilometers per hour. A pair of claws up to 1.5 meters long can kill a deer with one palm. They have excellent vision and hearing, and an extremely keen sense of smell. They are the top animals in the food chain.

Katmai Park is not connected by land, so you have to fly to get there. We took a Jazeera Airways flight at 6 a.m. and flew two hours from Anchorage to Kings Salmon Village. We then transferred to a seaplane for 30 minutes to get there.

The airport in Salmon Dawang Village may be ranked among the top ten simple airports. It is only 20 square meters in total and one person is busy in a room. These are today's passengers. We arrived late and there was no stool to sit on. Although it was raining coldly, I can only wait outside under the eaves. There is no security check here, but strict weighing is implemented. Be careful if you don't lose weight properly. Your weight and luggage cannot exceed the standard.

The pilot looked at him and saw that he was an old Alaskan gunner. Did the plane flying in the sky have a bit of the toughness of a top gun?

As soon as the plane landed on the water, we saw a mother bear and four cubs wandering around not far away to say hello to us. Her naive look was endearing, so we quickly took a few photos.

After a few steps, we entered the simple visitor center. The administrator showed us a video introducing the park, and explained the terrain location of the scenic spot, as well as many safety matters:

You can't bring anything to eat. Bears have a very keen sense of smell and will chase after them when they smell the scent of food. If you eat stinky tofu from a box of green onions and leeks, please wear a gas mask.

When walking through the forest, hang a bell and ring it or speak loudly to scare bears away. This is easy to handle: "Yuanyang Tea, Yuanyang Tea, you love me, I love you"

When you encounter a bear, back away slowly to give way to it. If the back route is also blocked, it is best to stand still.

When you are face to face with a bear, be sure not to look directly at it, open your arms and slowly back away, and say softly: "Don't eat me, don't eat me, I'm not your favorite food." English is preferred Russian secondly, I silently plan to add The previous sentence is neither food nor dessert.

When the bear rushes over, don't turn around and run. The bear can run faster than Liu Xiang. Don't fight head-on. A bear's claws can shatter the skull of a half-ton moose. Think carefully before proceeding. The correct way is to lie face down on the ground with your head in your hands, protect your back with a backpack and clothes, and stop quietly. The rest depends on the bear's interest. If, if, if the bear teases you endlessly, then stand up with a serious expression and die with more dignity.

The administrator also said that bears have a bad temper and become impulsive as soon as they become mothers. Mother bears with babies are easily frightened and aggressive. Hearing this, I remembered that I had just gotten off the plane and took a picture of Mama Bear and Bao Xiong, and I couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. Fortunately, I met a good mother who was informed and reasonable.

The administrator said that an average of one bear injury occurred here every two years. I was embarrassed to ask if it had been more than 600 days since the last time it injured someone.

To get to Brooks Falls from the visitor center, you first have to cross a bridge and then hike 1.5 miles through a forest to reach the bear viewing platform.

The female park patrol took us out. She was dressed neatly and looked like Sigourney Weaver who was ready to fight an alien. After walking a few steps, a big bear passed by leisurely. It was huge and strong, with slightly bulging shoulders and back, and short and thick brown body hair. It waddled as it walked.

The female patrol officer asked us to squat down and wait quietly. As we watched the bear slowly pass by from a short distance away, we couldn't help but take a picture. The sound of the shutter drew angry glances from the surrounding area.

Brown bears have abundant food during this season. They go to the lake to catch fish every day when they are hungry. After a meal, they take a walk by the lake. They will not attack us if they are secretly photographed. Anyway, that's how I explained it.

In the distance, some people are standing in the water fishing, and a few bears are catching fish not far away. They both seem to be concentrating on each other and turning a blind eye to each other. You are not in my eyes.

The wooden bridge by the lake is the only way to the waterfall. There are closed iron bars on both sides of the bridge, and both entrances are locked. When people enter, they should lock the door quickly to prevent bears from getting on the bridge and people having to go down to the lake. There were two bears at the entrance before we got on the bridge. The patrolman asked us to step back and squat down and wait without making any noise. The bears slowly walked away and we crossed the bridge. No one dared to take pictures this time. It is said that bears sometimes eat fish, fight and bask in the sun, and when they are tired, they will sleep at the entrance and exit of the wooden bridge to rest their minds. At that time, the people on the bridge are unlucky. If the bear does not wake up and leave, people cannot get off the bridge. One or two It might even take an hour, but it would be miserable to catch a flight.

I encountered bears three times near and far, and carefully hiked through the forest, and finally arrived at the platform of Brooks Falls. Since there were too many people who wanted to see bears on the platform, everyone registered their name first and waited for their name to be called before they could go to the bear viewing platform. , it can stay on the table for about 30 minutes. If you want to watch again, you need to register and queue after you come out.

While waiting, I saw the photographers and videographers busy. I went to ask and found out they were from the BBC. They had been working here for three weeks. They had several monitors and a lot of batteries by the wall. People shoot a few weeks of footage here and then edit it into a few minutes of documentary, no wonder it’s so exciting.

Let’s talk about salmon. When the salmon born here are about 1 year old, they will swim down the river and swim to the Pacific Ocean, where there is more abundant food and nutrients. They will live in the sea for about 4 years. When they are strong and mature enough, they will return to the place where they were born to reproduce. This is their instinct. The collective migration of salmon back home can be said to be a feat of nature, because the migration path is long and arduous. Along the way, they struggled upstream along the rocks along the river because the water flow along the river was slightly slower. Even so, they will consume all the fat accumulated in the ocean, and their bodies will continue to be congested due to high-intensity exercise. After a long journey back to the upper reaches of the river, the color of salmon gradually changes from silver-gray to reddish brown. After spawning, mature salmon use up all their energy and reach the end of their lives. They die where they were born, and the last thing they do for the next generation is to leave their bodies on the river beach to rot and convert into organic matter in the water, so that there are enough nutrients in the river water so that the children can grow up healthily. big. Therefore, when people come to the river beaches after the breeding season, they will see large areas of salmon carcasses.

In the first three weeks of July every year, salmon migration passes through Brooks Falls. The small waterfall is an obstacle that salmon must overcome. The only way is to use all the strength to jump up. The carp jumps up the waterfall like a dragon gate. At this time, hungry bears are waiting for those unlucky fish. The smart brown bears have mastered the habits of salmon. They wait on the waterfall with their mouths open, and dexterously catch the fish jumping in the air, enjoying the "pie" falling from the sky without any effort.

After grabbing the fish, the bear immediately held the fish down with its big paws, and ripped open the body of the salmon with its sharp teeth, enjoying the delicious food. The bears looked contented, "eating fresh salmon raw." Bears and humans have the same view on this point.

A ray of precious sunlight shines on the water through the dense woods. The river makes a cheerful sound as it washes over the waterfall. White seagulls stand on the rocks not far away, looking eagerly at the chewing bears, hoping to give them some leftovers. Leftovers, what would the bear think when he looked at the seagulls?

In this bear-infested world, there is warmth, sweetness and the quenching sincerity of gay friends.

There is the sadness and loneliness of walking alone with bruises all over your body

There is also a life-and-death struggle with ambition that never gives in, the hormones dopamine and adrenaline, and spitting everywhere.

A world full of vitality, warmth and harmony, cruel and bloody yet full of magic!

Why do I always have tears in my eyes? Why do I wear anti-mosquito gear when taking photos? The bag on my head can prove it, because mosquitoes still love me deeply in this place.