The Ocean Within
the Bear

In Alaska Native art, people and animals are not depicted as separate from their environment. They are all one. An example would be the familiar bear depicted with a salmon in its belly. Totem poles also illustrate this concept with the placement of humans surrounded by birds, frogs, mammals, and fish. A famous Kodiak Alutiiq petroglyph from Cape Alitak shows a human between two whales, holding the flippers almost like they are dancing together!

Dead whales are an important food source for Kodiak Brown Bears. The interdependence of the terrestrial and marine ecosystems is obvious to those of us who live in Kodiak, but not always to visitors. Bears and humans feast on salmon that return each summer from the ocean to their natal spawning streams. Kodiak Brown Bears also feast on dead whales and other dead marine mammals that occasionally wash up on beaches. Marine mammal carrion often provides protein to bears at times of the year when salmon are not available thereby greatly enriching their diet.

During the summer when more people are out in boats around Kodiak Island, one spectacular sight is a dead whale lying on a beach with many growling Kodiak Brown Bears gorging on the flesh.

Other than the physical borders of sea and land, the ecological lines between the two habitats are not definite.

An island may be isolated from other land, but the sea connects it all touching everything.