Q 01/05

Katmai's headquarters town lies about 290 miles southwest of which Alaskan city?

A) Fairbanks

B) Ketchikan

C) Homer

D) Anchorage

Answer · why

D) Anchorage

The park sits on the Alaska Peninsula across the water from Kodiak Island; there is no road link to the rest of the state.

Q 02/05

Katmai holds the world's largest protected population of which animal, estimated at about 2,200?

A) Bull moose

B) Caribou herds

C) Brown bears

D) Sea otters

Answer · why

C) Brown bears

They gather at the falls when the salmon run; because rangers never let them get human food, the bears are famously indifferent to people.

Q 03/05

Which fish draws the bears to Katmai's rivers each summer?

A) Rainbow trout

B) Arctic char

C) Halibut

D) Sockeye salmon

Answer · why

D) Sockeye salmon

They enter the Naknek drainage from Bristol Bay in June and July and spawn from August to October, feeding bears, eagles and people alike.

Q 04/05

At which waterfall, a mile and a half from Naknek Lake, do bears famously catch leaping salmon?

A) Naknek Falls

B) Savonoski Falls

C) Brooks Falls

D) Alagnak Falls

Answer · why

C) Brooks Falls

The falls are only about six feet high; up to 25 bears have been seen there at once in July, the peak month.

Q 05/05

How high is the waterfall the salmon must leap on the Brooks River?

A) About 15 feet

B) About 6 feet

C) About 30 feet

D) About 50 feet

Answer · why

B) About 6 feet

The Bureau of Fisheries even blasted out part of the falls in 1921 to help the fish; the best viewing months are July and September.