Cover photograph: Geographic Harbor, Katmai National Park, Alaska, USA: a mother brown bear (Ursus arctos) and her cub foraging.(COVER PHOTOGRAPH)(Brief article)

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A mother brown bear (Ursus arctos) and her young cub comb the shoreline of Geographic Harbor in Katmai National State Park during low tide. Brown bears rule the nearly 400 miles of rugged coastline of this national park situated at the base of the Alaska Peninsula. It has been federally protected since 1918 and became a national park in 1980. This cub is learning to dig for clams along the shoreline of the Arctic harbor at low tide. Certain bears utilize this foraging habitat by hunting for mussels, isopods, barnacles, marine worms (polychaetes and peanut worms), and small intertidal fishes (blennies and sand lances). These organisms are high in …