Pacific herring, a small silvery forage fish, have often profound ecological, cultural, and economic importance in the coastal ecosystems in which they occur. From their beginnings as eggs scattered along shorelines, to schools of lipid-rich adults, Pacific herring are a crucial prey species and a cornerstone of many Pacific coast food webs.
太平洋鲱鱼和水生生态系统
由于太平洋鲱鱼是一种中型的鱼类，太平洋鲱鱼将食物网的底部连接到各种各样的较高营养的捕食者，包括座头鲸，太平洋鲑鱼，海鸟，海鸟和其他鱼类。
它们的产卵事件发生在从加利福尼亚到阿拉斯加及其他地区的太平洋海岸线上点缀的地点，代表了大自然最壮观的事件之一。在产卵事件中，鲱鱼的快速移动学校反对海岸线，女性沿着海带，鳗草和其他底物的叶片沿着密集的层产生数以千计的卵，而雄性则释放了米尔特（精子），这会使水粉白色白色。
These spawn events also attract a large diversity of marine predators, including grey and humpback whales, seals, sea lions, sea otters and a large diversity of marine birds that gather to feed on the herring and their eggs.
But what of terrestrial ecosystems? Although the scientific literature is relatively replete with evidence regarding the aggregations of marine predators at herring spawn events, there is an absence of information regarding potential linkages with terrestrial ecosystems and taxa.
但是陆地生态系统呢？
Before we began field research into the connections between Pacific herring and terrestrial ecosystems, we sought out information regarding terrestrial predators and scavengers consuming herring eggs from local and traditional knowledge holders, including fishermen, divers, herring biologists and others.
We also relied on our own understanding and experiences in addition to evidence from the scientific literature relating to marine-terrestrial interactions involving salmon and relatives of herring that return to fresh water to spawn.
移动、机会主义和经常丰富的动物s in coastal ecosystems, black bears were quickly flagged as likely candidates for potential interactions with herring spawn. Along with grizzlies, black bears are widely recognized as dominant predators of salmon. Coastal black bears also routinely forage in intertidal zones and interact with a range of other taxa, including other spawning fishes.
对于生活在鲱鱼产卵附近的熊和其他陆地物种，鲱鱼产卵事件将轻松获得有价值的脂质和蛋白质。此外，由于早春不列颠哥伦比亚省的大部分鲱鱼产卵，因此发生在熊替代资源有限的时候发生的产卵事件。
Waiting on the beaches of Quatsino Sound
作为我与维多利亚大学的汤姆·雷姆兴（Tom Reimchen）博士进行的博士学位研究的一部分，以及雨笼保护基金会和维多利亚大学的保罗·帕奎特（Paul Paquet）博士，我们在位于温哥华北端附近的Quatsino Sound海滩上等待岛，在Quatsino第一民族的传统领土上。
每年3月初到达，雪通常下雪到海岸线，而黑熊仍在冬季巢穴中。我们将在该地区的海滩上设置远程摄像机，并开始等待。在我们的偏远小屋旁边，鲱鱼渔民的三代家庭类似地等待着产卵的开始。
通常，产卵的前几天是渔民所说的“鲱鱼天气” - 阳光明媚的蓝天日散布着冰雹。但是，每年产卵事件本身都会有所不同。
有时，鲱鱼在产卵开始之前会填充海湾，并由覆盖水面的气泡宣布。在又一年中，他们在黑暗之后搬进去，第二天早上我发现了他们，在飓风条件下与海岸产卵。
In Quatsino, active spawning usually lasts for about five days or so. Depending on the year and the timing of the spawn, black bears tended to emerge not long after. Following months in their dens, the bears were sluggish and many were thin. Often it was the large males that visited the beaches first.
Unlike spawning salmon, where exertion and skill is often needed to chase and successfully capture the fish, the windrows of herring eggs that wash up into the high intertidal and supratidal zones are readily accessible to black bears. Emerging from the forest, black bears commonly sat or laid down in the piles of herring eggs and washed up seaweeds, ate their fill and then returned to the relative safety of the woods.
黑熊如何应对产卵事件？
To study this interaction between black bears and Pacific herring, we used non-invasive approaches. By relying on remote cameras positioned on spawn and spawn-free beaches, we documented that black bears responded positively to spawn events, with bears being more frequent at spawn beaches with larger quantities of eggs.
在搜寻熊小径和海滩时，我们收集了熊粪。该分析揭示了佐证的证据；熊在较大的产卵的海滩上消耗了更多的鸡蛋。
虽然这需要几天他成人rring to spawn, the eggs are left to ripen for two to three weeks before hatching. Initially, we thought that herring spawn events might offer bears a relatively short and discrete food source, but large numbers of eggs fail to hatch. In Quatsino Sound, drifts of eggs are left stranded and rotting on the beaches, with black bears observed eating eggs and egg slime for weeks following the hatching period.
Implications of Bear-Herring Interactions
我们的研究将黑熊和太平洋鲱鱼连接起来，这两个相对显着的物种在沿海生态系统中起着实质性作用，但以前尚未联系起来。作为熊疗相互作用的第一个科学证据，很难推测生态含义的全部范围。
然而，北美的黑熊分布在北美和太平洋鲱鱼方面有所下降，在最近和商业提取开始之前，它们的产卵事件都更加广泛。因此，熊的相互作用可能更强，历史上更广泛。
More broadly, these novel bear-herring interactions highlight the importance of scientific knowledge regarding species and ecosystem interactions, in addition to the lack of information regarding their possible decline.
We have noted the bear/herring roe interaction for a long time now and personally have observed the same bears(black bears with distinct light brown patches on back legs) coming to the same location year after year. I,m sure they were aware of the timing as well, as the bears appeared within days of the herring spawn at the same location.
if they arrived early, they feasted on the blue mussel.