Each year, starting in summer, up to 6 million Pacific salmon swim upstream the Ozernaya river (the only river originating in Kurile lake whose waters flow from it into the sea of Okhotsk) to get into the lake to spawn. The highest concentrations of bears occur along streams during salmon spawning. The Kurile lake, located in the South Kamchatka Sanctuary is the largest spawning ground for red salmon (sockeye salmon) in Eurasia.
As a wildlife videographer, at the beginning of August 2023, I traveled to this remote and pristine region and I spent 5 days on the lake filming the Kamchatka brown bears: the largest brown bears of Eurasia, excellent swimmers and sharp predators.
I traveled to this remote and pristine region and I spent 5 days on Kurile Lake filming the Kamchatka brown bears: the largest brown bears of Eurasia, excellent swimmers and sharp predators
When you observe a group of bears and spend quite some time among them you start telling them apart. Each one has its own behavior, each one its own appearance. But make no mistake, Kamchatka brown bears are apex predators weighing up to 900 lb (400 kg), maybe even more, and before going to sleep for winter they need to be fed continuously. They have one objective in summer: to stuff themselves with salmon, as many as 50 a day, and stock as much fat as possible to survive the long winter.
Even if they are tolerant of human presence, people always need to be careful and observe them from a safe distance. Bears can change their behavior in an instant. They can be quietly and peacefully sunbathing and in a split second they can run quite long distances.
Bears are cannibalistic and quite often adult males eat cubs. When an adult male is in the surroundings females use to bring the cubs near people because they know that humans would not harm them.
This mama bear trusts humans so much that she came twice, in 2 different days, to a spot close to us to breastfeed her cubs.
Bears don’t go into a real hibernation. In the colder months they retire to a den (which the Russians call a berloga) and fall asleep. Females give birth to cubs while sleeping. In the Kurile Lake area, many of them swim up to some islets located inside the lake to give birth away from the attacks of adult males.
The Kamchatka bear cubs stay with their mother until they reach the age of 2. The cubs born in the Kurile Lake area stay with their mother until they are 3 years old, as there is abundance of food and females can afford it. Scientists observed that the mother bear can decide how many cubs she will give birth to depending on the availability of food sources.
The cubs play carefree and mama bear takes care of them. She will nourish and protect them for a few more years, until they inevitably separate and have to fend for themselves.
It is the law of nature. One day, they will have to accept their destiny: to live alone, away from the other bears, away from their family.
This is the life of Kamchatka bears. It’s the cycle of life that repeats itself. And as long as the salmon continue to make their long journey, the bears will fiercely rule this wild land still untouched by man.
