Brown bear watching & wildlife tours on the coast of Katmai National
Park, Alaska
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OBSERVE AND STUDY GRIZZLY/BROWN
BEARS
by Dr. Lynn Rogers
 The North
American Bear Center found a location where people can easily observe
and study grizzly/brown bears. The area is over a hundred miles
from the nearest road, so the inaccessibility of the area
virtually assures that you won’t see another person outside your
group—just an abundance of wildlife. We discovered this
opportunity in 1996 when wildlife photographers Erwin and Peggy
Bauer recommended it to us as the best place and the best way to see
brown/grizzly bears living their natural lives in a variety of
situations. Dr Lynn Rogers checked it out in 1996 and has since
made many visits to Katmai National Park to compare the
behavior and lifestyles of these misunderstood giants with the
black bears that he studied in Minnesota for over 30 years. The area
can be accessed through Katmai Coastal Bear Tours, which is an
ecologically minded eco-tourism company. They operate in a very
low impact manner. They
 accommodate
up to six people who live on a boat rather than camping on
land. This assures lowest impact on the land and the
bears. They further assure low impact on the bears by always
having an experienced naturalist accompany the people when they go
ashore. Ocean tides of up to 26 feet, some of the largest tides
in the world, erase most of the human tracks daily. This is a
rare window of opportunity for people who want to view bears doing
their natural thing without being disturbed by a lot of other people.
The idea of viewing bears in the coastal area of Katmai National
Park started with the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. Bears watched the
oil cleanup crews and started getting used to foraging while people
were present. Katmai Coastal Bear Tours began bringing small
groups. The presence of the people reduced the poaching that had been
a problem before that. Paying customers gave the bears an economic
value other than hunting. This new value could help preserve and
expand bear protection areas. The area is largely undiscovered by the
public even though it is a national park. It is our least
visited national park and is essentially pristine wilderness. As more
people discover it, rules will have to be made to control the people
and protect the bears, and those rules are being developed at this
time.
But for the time being, small groups can walk virtually anywhere
without restriction and watch bears behave as they have there for
thousands of years.
[ Values of Bear-Watching along the Katmai Coast ] [ Observing Grizzlies ] [ Bear Watching ] [ Living on the Boat ] [ Coming into Bear Country ] |
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