Hood Bay
It was an early morning cold wind that blew the Sea Lion into the large fingers of water on the western shore of Admiralty Island known as Hood Bay. Deep within the south finger a brown bear was spotted on shore and our Expedition Leader, Trip, awoke us just in time for the bear to saunter back into the woods – some of us sleepers still don’t believe that he really spotted a bear! However, later in the morning as we explored Sitkoh Bay on the southeast coast of Chichagof Island, we sighted 4 bears grazing in the meadows at the head of the bay and another one near the old Chatahm cannery. So our morning searching for brown bears was definitely a success. We also spent a short time watching a large female humpback whale with her calf cruising leisurely along the mouth of Hood Bay, perhaps nursing.
Our afternoon was spent exploring one of the naturalist’s favorite spots in Southeast Alaska, Lake Eva. Some of us kayaked along the beautiful, forested shoreline and into the river outlet of Lake Eva while the rest of us hiked through lush, old growth forest and along the flower bedecked shoreline. Here we met one of the truly misunderstood creatures of this world, the banana slug. Most people write off their introduced European cousins as garden pests without giving these native beauties a second look. Well today we gave them a well deserved second and even third look. We noticed that they have 2 sets of antennae, each with corvette headlight eyes that can detect food at over 3 meters. They are hermaphroditic and can thereby mate with themselves or anyone else. But more than that (it’s hard to imagine what could be more than that!), they have slime that is slippery in only one direction. Think of what would happen if their slime slipped in two directions—they would just slide back and forth in one place and never get anywhere. But not so with the banana slug. Their slime slips them forward and then holds as they push against it and then slips again and holds again. All of our brilliant chemists and engineers have been unable to create a substance that will slip and hold over and over again like our new friend, the banana slug. So don’t undersell this slimy little creature of our forests when next you cross their slimy paths.
It was an early morning cold wind that blew the Sea Lion into the large fingers of water on the western shore of Admiralty Island known as Hood Bay. Deep within the south finger a brown bear was spotted on shore and our Expedition Leader, Trip, awoke us just in time for the bear to saunter back into the woods – some of us sleepers still don’t believe that he really spotted a bear! However, later in the morning as we explored Sitkoh Bay on the southeast coast of Chichagof Island, we sighted 4 bears grazing in the meadows at the head of the bay and another one near the old Chatahm cannery. So our morning searching for brown bears was definitely a success. We also spent a short time watching a large female humpback whale with her calf cruising leisurely along the mouth of Hood Bay, perhaps nursing.
Our afternoon was spent exploring one of the naturalist’s favorite spots in Southeast Alaska, Lake Eva. Some of us kayaked along the beautiful, forested shoreline and into the river outlet of Lake Eva while the rest of us hiked through lush, old growth forest and along the flower bedecked shoreline. Here we met one of the truly misunderstood creatures of this world, the banana slug. Most people write off their introduced European cousins as garden pests without giving these native beauties a second look. Well today we gave them a well deserved second and even third look. We noticed that they have 2 sets of antennae, each with corvette headlight eyes that can detect food at over 3 meters. They are hermaphroditic and can thereby mate with themselves or anyone else. But more than that (it’s hard to imagine what could be more than that!), they have slime that is slippery in only one direction. Think of what would happen if their slime slipped in two directions—they would just slide back and forth in one place and never get anywhere. But not so with the banana slug. Their slime slips them forward and then holds as they push against it and then slips again and holds again. All of our brilliant chemists and engineers have been unable to create a substance that will slip and hold over and over again like our new friend, the banana slug. So don’t undersell this slimy little creature of our forests when next you cross their slimy paths.
