This week I look at an amazing report from Alaska that shows that given the choice, salmon may not be a grizzlies first choice for dinner. I also bring to a close, the story of the building of Canada's transcontinental railway..and with that said, let's get to it. Grizzlies Choose Berries over Salmon Every once in a while you come across a study that throws out everything that you thought you knew about a subject. As a biologist and naturalist, I often lament about how tough the bears in the Rockies have it over their counterparts on the north coast of British Columbia and Alaska. To most people, coastal bears live in the land of milk and honey. They have 5 kinds of Pacific salmon, and many kinds of edible berries. I often talk about the importance of understanding the seasonal food preferences of bears in order to stay safe in bear country. If you know what they're eating when they're eating it, it becomes safer to avoid unwanted encounters simply by avoiding the bear's food de jour. Stay clear of what is on today's menu. We often talk about the critical importance of meat in the diet of bears. Here in the Rockies, they don't have a great deal of meaty options. They'll take some 45% of newborn moose and elk calves, feed on winter killed bighorn sheep and mountain goats, and dig up some ground squirrel colonies. Since they can't have enough meat calories, they rely upon buffaloberries to build their fat layers for winter. If they can't find meat, then berries are their second choice…or so that's what we used to think. What if a bear found itself in a world with unlimited numbers of tasty salmon, but also a bumper crop of berries? What do YOU think they would choose? A recent study on Kodiak Island in Alaska tried to discover the answer to this question. They focused on a well-studied portion of the Karluk watershed on the island. Because bears have been studied here for many years, it seemed like a good place to start simply because there was some good historic data that might help them to determine the food preferences of the resident grizzlies. In this study, bears feed on a variety of berries including red elderberry, salmonberry, crowberry and blueberry. Of these four, red elderberry is by far the preferred choice for bears. If you're not familiar with elderberry bushes, look for a shrub that can be as tall as 3 or 4 metres with compound leaves and dense spikes of white flowers. Later, the flowers will be replaced by dense clumps of berries that grizzlies find very appealing. The denseness of the berry clusters is also what makes these berries popular with bears as they don't need to expend great deals of energy eating them. This experiment was prompted as a result of changes in the seasonal food patterns on Kodiak Island. Historically, while sockeye salmon run for 4 months, they are most vulnerable to bears when they enter smaller tributary streams in July and August. Year after year, decade after decade, the salmon always arrive at the same time of year. Because the bears are able to catch the salmon before they spawn, the fish contain up to 3 times more food energy than dying fish. In the past, elderberries ripened later in the season, usually mid-August as the salmon run was beginning to wane. For bears, this was ideal. As one food disappeared, another food was ready for feeding. Things have been changing rapidly in the north as a result of changing climates and increasingly warm spring temperatures. In warm years, the berries are beginning to ripen earlier and earlier, with ripe berries as early as mid-July on some years. For the first time the bears found themselves in a situation where there were two key foods that were available in the same area at the same time. What surprised University of California scientists though was that they did not make the obvious choice - salmon. Instead the majority of bears abandon