Chinook salmon successful at guarding their redds. Chinook eggs hatch, 90 to 150 days after deposition, depending upon water temperature. Egg deposits are timed to ensure the young salmon fry emerge during an appropriate season for survival and growth. Fry and parr (young fish) usually stay in fresh water 12 to 18 months before traveling downstream to estuaries, where they remain as smolts for several months. Some Chinooks return to the fresh water one or two years earlier than their counterparts, and are referred to as "jack" salmon. "Jack" salmon are typically less than long, but are sexually mature and return at
Salmon run powerful brown bears, but it is also because they catch more salmon at night. During the day, salmon are very evasive and attuned to visual clues, but at night they focus on their spawning activities, generating acoustic clues the bears tune into. Black bears may also fish for salmon during the night because their black fur is easily spotted by salmon in the daytime. In 2009, researchers compared the foraging success of black bears with the white-coated spirit bear, a morphed subspecies of the black bear. They found the spirit bear had no more success catching salmon at night time,