Lots of playing around today. Most of it will be in the next 3 albums of August 22 (in progress).

From today's NG Blog:

You’ve asked some really good questions. Few of them have easy or clear answers.I’m going to try answer you questions again, because I don’t know when or if we’ll hear from Larry. You wrote:

"I have no sense of how much land and space the sanctuary covers."
According to the Alaska Department of Fish & Game website http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=mcneil_river.main states that the sanctuary covers about 200 square miles. It appears to cover the watershed of the McNeil River and is roughly 10 miles wide and 20 miles long.

"Where do the majority of the bears go after feeding on the fish for the season?
It is not known for sure where exactly the majority of bears reside when not within view at the Sanctuary, but read on.

"How far do they travel away from the immediate area to forage for food?"
The 1996 McNeil River Management Plan http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/management/planning/planning_pdfs/mcneil_river_plan.pdf cites a 1994 study by Sellers and Aumiller, noting that bears tagged in May in areas as far away as 48 and 73 miles away from the falls were later observed at the McNeil River Falls in July 1989. The McNeil Management Plan further states that “prior to 1989, the greatest distance a known McNeil bear was killed or observed from McNeil Falls was about 32 miles.”

Elizabeth Wasserman