After my last post, later that same evening, I was able to witness a bit more fishing activity at Brooks Falls, again at the Brooks Falls Live Cam. I only watched for a short time, and while there were two bears present, I focused on one, witnessing some interesting behavior in terms of the way it handled the fish it caught. Following my pattern, I will refer to this bear as Bear F. Bear F is of a dark blonde to light brown color throughout most of its coat, with lighter blonde on the ears and a darker brown on the legs. It seems to have a somewhat more pronounced brow than some of the other bears I have seen, a roughly average-length snout, and some possible scarring on the left front shoulder (difficult to tell given the resolution of the video).
Bear F was fishing at the lip at Brooks Falls as I watched. What was most interesting about it’s behavior was that after catching a fish and moving to the nearby flatter rock to eat the fish (a common enough behavior for those bears that fish at this spot), Bear F only seemed to eat part of the fish before going back to the lip to continue fishing, not eating all of the fish. I’m not sure if this is common, but the other bears I’ve seen have largely seemed to eat most or all of the fish they’ve caught before going to catch another. Once Bear F moved back to the lip to catch more fish, some nearby birds arrived almost immediately and began foraging on the fish carcass, eating the meat leftover from Bear F’s catch, until the fish fell over the falls. Bear F caught another fish within a matter of moments and went on to eat that one as well. Perhaps the amount of meat left on the first fish in comparison to the inedible parts of the fish wasn’t worth the time the bear would spend picking apart, in comparison to the time it took to catch another fish. Time was better spent fishing and obtaining the next meaty fish rather than scrounging for every last bit of meat left on the first one? This seems to work out well for the birds, and Bear F didn’t seem to mind the birds swooping in on the fish.
Possible IDs: TBD
Ports in the Storm 
This is 409 Beadnose, an adult female brown bear first classified as a subadult in 1999. She has a long straight muzzle with a slightly upturned nose, a medium-large body with a light to medium brown coat, and wide-set blonde tipped ears. Annually since 1999, she is frequently observed along the Brooks River; and is habituated to the presence of humans, using areas near people to feed, rest, and travel. She is very experienced and successful at fishing the lip of the falls, and is often observed raising one of her paws as she fishes the lip. She has been observed along the shore of the Brooks River near the falls with spring cubs and will fish the lip of the falls with yearling cubs. She has had 3 known litters of cubs. She is one of the fattest adult female bears observed utilizing the Brooks River when she is not caring for offspring.
Thanks, Dee! This is really great information, I appreciate your input. I never did get a chance to try to ID this one. How do you know so much about the bears?