Grizzly cub with sockeye salmon and mother grizzly, Mitchell River, Cariboo-Chilcotin region, British Columbia

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In the late summer 4 to 5 year old sockeye salmon swim from the Pacific Ocean, up the Fraser River system into the Quesnel River and Quesnel Lake and finally up to the Mitchell River at the head of Quesnell Lake where they spawn, a distance of several hundred miles. They are look a little battered by the time they get to their spawning grounds, and are starting to die. The dead and dying salmon feed a rich ecosystem, including a community of bears, wolves, eagles and other wildlife, who drag their bodies into the forest to add nutrients to the plants that grow there. Plant species that efficiently take up nutrients from the decomposing bodies of salmon flourish, and attract more song birds to the dense growths of wild berry bushes and the increased numbers of insects near the salmon rivers. This image show a grizzly cub on the river bank with a dead salmon in its mouth and its mother in the bushes behind it.

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Size: 3600px × 2400px
Location: Mitchell River off Quesnel Lake, Cariboo-Chilcotin region, British Columbia, Canada
Photo credit: © Terry Allen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

Keywords: bank, bear, berry, british, bushes, canada, cariboo-chilcotin, columbia, cub, dead, eating, grizzly, lake, mitchell, mother, quesnel, region, river, salmon