Brown bear catches salmon on Silver Salmon Creek

Brown bear catches salmon in its jaws at Silver Salmon Creek. This adult brown bear has a successful fishing expedition as seen in this image of a fresh catch. An average of 372,000 sockeye salmon return to Lake Clark each year to spawn. Sockeye salmon are critical components to the ecology of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve.

Swimming up the Kvichak watershed, the salmon morph from the silvery scales seen here in their ocean stage of life to a body of red scales that indicates they are entering the spawning stage. This closeup action image is common during bear watching at Lake Clark.

Stock Image #20170725-111006