- Bears fertilize the forest by discarding salmon carcasses
- Salmon carcasses fertilize the soil and help plants and other organisms grow in that area to help support life and its development
- The salmon tissue brings nutrients to the woodlands
- When salmon get too old, they come back to die which gives nutrients and energy from the ocean to the streams and the lake ecosystem
- Only a fraction of salmon is eaten overall by the bear, the rest of the salmon population is consumed by other plants and animals
- Adult male chum salmon on the spawning grounds contains an average of 130 grams of nitrogen, 20 grams of phosphorus and more than 20,000 kilo-joules of energy in the form of protein and fat
- Both grizzlies and black bears depend on salmon because of their reproductive success and also provide a good meal for bears after hibernation because they provide a good source of nutrients after the winter
- Some bears won’t eat salmon if it is a male or a female that has already laid eggs
- Because the survival of bears is so dependent, they may fight other bears and steal fish from each other
- After they had analyzing 20,000 carcasses, it was found that only about 25% of each salmon was eaten including mostly the areas with the highest fat content
- Leftover carcasses from birds other animals are left to provide nutrients from other animals and plants to consume
- In some areas that have a low population in salmon, have helicopters or trucks dumping salmon to provide the need nutrients to the forest
- The removing of bears or less salmon will bring less nutrient flow to forest
- Salmon carcasses fertilize the soil and help plants and other organisms grow in that area to help support life and its development
- The salmon tissue brings nutrients to the woodlands
- When salmon get too old, they come back to die which gives nutrients and energy from the ocean to the streams and the lake ecosystem
- Only a fraction of salmon is eaten overall by the bear, the rest of the salmon population is consumed by other plants and animals
- Adult male chum salmon on the spawning grounds contains an average of 130 grams of nitrogen, 20 grams of phosphorus and more than 20,000 kilo-joules of energy in the form of protein and fat
- Both grizzlies and black bears depend on salmon because of their reproductive success and also provide a good meal for bears after hibernation because they provide a good source of nutrients after the winter
- Some bears won’t eat salmon if it is a male or a female that has already laid eggs
- Because the survival of bears is so dependent, they may fight other bears and steal fish from each other
- After they had analyzing 20,000 carcasses, it was found that only about 25% of each salmon was eaten including mostly the areas with the highest fat content
- Leftover carcasses from birds other animals are left to provide nutrients from other animals and plants to consume
- In some areas that have a low population in salmon, have helicopters or trucks dumping salmon to provide the need nutrients to the forest
- The removing of bears or less salmon will bring less nutrient flow to forest
This article talks about how bears are an important part to the ecosystem by discarding partially eaten salmon carcasses, which are good for the environment. Not only do the salmon provide nutrients for the environment, they also provide nutrients needed for the bear to hibernate. When bears catch salmon, they only eat the parts of the body that are highest in fat, which is only about 25% of the whole fish, and then discard it. After they are finished, they return to the stream to catch more fish. Many different animals make good use of the discarded salmon carcasses; invertebrates colonize the carcass and lay eggs in it, birds and other mammals eat it. If anything were to happen which would end up disrupting the population of either the bear or salmon, it would end up disrupting that whole ecosystem.
In this article it shows how much bears and salmon have a influence on each other and the surrounding ecosystem. The author shows how due to bears only eating 25% of a salmon there nutrients is spread into the soil and fertilize and give the necessary nutrients to plants that other wise wouldn't be as abundant and easy to get. This article shows how due to bear behavior they unintentionally provide nutrients for the ecosystem. This is also another example of how an apex predator of a ecosystem has a major influence on the ecosystem and another animal.