Guide Photos

floatplane at grizzly bear lodge
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From a guides perspective this is a good view of a seaplane at the dock of Grizzly Bear Lodge. The first reason would be that we are on the water and not carrying luggage or boxes of food up to the lodge. The second is that if we were on the dock carrying luggage it is a high tide. The float is about the same level as the shore and this makes the trips allot easier. The summer tides can be four or five meters (yards) in height and this makes for a steep ramp up to land level. The flight to the lodge from Campbell River takes about forty-five minutes and flies over some great coastal scenery so be sure to have your camera at hand and not stowed in your suitcase. 

 

Guide Photos

grizzlies three in a row
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The size of these second year cubs can be compared to the April 8th and 10th posting, which show first year cubs. Grizzly bear cubs generally stay with their mother for two years, although they will stay for three or four if the sow does not become pregnant in the fall of their second year. Pregnancy triggers a reaction in the sow through which she drives the cubs off and hibernates on her own in preparation for giving birth to new cubs the following spring. Cubs will often spend their first hibernation together, and three-year olds observed in frequent close proximity in the spring are most likely to be siblings who have denned together. Even second year cubs stay close to their mother especially when they are on a fishing river in the presence of other bears.

 

Guide Photos

whales and sea lions
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It is not uncommon to see Steller sealions play with humpback whales. I have found no research to explain the behaviour and from the times that I have viewed these actions they do not appear aggressive just interesting to observe. In this case it is a humpback passing the small island that is one of the “haul outs” for the sealions and a few in the water following it as it dives. Other times they will follow it along the shore and go to where it surfaces after a dive.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly face off
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Most disputes between grizzly bears over the best fishing spots end with one side deciding that the amount and the ease of catching salmon does not warrant getting hurt. In this case the reddish grizzly is also defending the fishing area for two cubs and it is not good to upset a mother. This photo was taken in the fall just below the viewing stands on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. The grizzly watching tours from the lodge normally views a variety of bear activity from feeding to feuding and all that lies in between.

 

Guide Photos

sea lions charging
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Some Steller sealions have started to spend their summers in our viewing area. The whale watching safari from Grizzly Bear Lodge travels from Minstrel Island on Knight Inlet to Johnstone Strait and Vancouver Island. This hour trip places us in an area of a variety of marine wildlife such as killer whales (orca), humpback whales, sealions, seals, pacific white-sided dolphins, dall porpoise, harbour porpoise as well as bald eagles and numerous species of ducks and gulls. All of this is because of the abundance of herring which one way or another is the main source of food, either eating the herring directly or indirectly through salmon. Some of the Steller sealions, about three dozen, which used to pass through on their migration now summer here.

 

Guide Photos

young bald eagle
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Bald eagles are common on all day tours whether on the grizzly bear tour, whale watching safari or the extra day wildlife trip to the Kakweikan River and Trapper Rick. In the fall when the salmon are spawning in Knight Inlet’s Glendale River the eagles come down to the riverbank to feed on dead salmon. All birds of prey find it easier to eat carrion than catch their own food and a riverbank full of spawned out salmon is the ideal place. On our skiff rides up the river adult and juveniles eagles remain on the riverbank and refuse to leave their meals while we pass close. As shown in this photo we tend to get the “eagle eye” as if to say, “this is mine, keep going”.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly hiding
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An interesting photo of a grizzly bear taken in the spring.  This is the estuary at the mouth of Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. In the spring we travel up the inlet for a little over an hour, looking for black bear, eagles, dolphins and whales along the way, to the river estuary. Upon arriving we transfer to a large shallow draft flat-bottom skiff used for viewing along the shore and up the river. The protein rich sedge grass growing in the area attracts the bears and offers great viewing opportunities. This is large bear walking through a patch of grass. Large because the sedge grass is normally better than a meter (three feet) tall.

 

Guide Photos

grizzlies fight
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Not all encounters between grizzly bears are friendly but this one between siblings was playing. The wildlife tours from the lodge travel up Knight Inlet to view the grizzly bears along the shore in the spring and after August 24th we move up the river to the viewing platforms which overlook a man-made salmon spawning channel. Both along the beach and on the river we encounter juvenile bears testing their strength in play. The only true aggression is when a mother with cubs encounters a male bear or when one bear is defending its claim to a fishing area. But even these rarely end in injury as mothers are a “force of nature” normally left alone and the abundance of salmon in the area make the fishing spot not that important.

 

Guide Photos

orca porposing
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As this photo taken, on a whale watching tour shows orca has a very distinctive coloring. While these markings are beautiful, they do have a very important purpose. The quote from “The Orca Ocean” website is a good explanation.
      “The first thing the orca’s markings do is to help break up their shape in the water. This is known as Disruptive Coloring. Close up the orca is quite visible in the water. However, when the orca gets further away, the white spots help to make the orca look like a collection of smaller animals, thus fooling their prey. Another bit in fooling their prey the eye patch. Animals that are being attack will instinctively go for the eyes. Sharks protect their eyes from seals and sea lions with membranes that come up and cover the eye. Orcas, however, have the large eye patch that the prey will focus on and therefore leave the actual eye unharmed.
      The other purposes the coloring on a killer whale is what is known as Counter Shading. Counter shading is a form of camouflage. What it does is simple: When an orca is swimming above their prey and the prey looks up the orca’s white patches will blend in with the light shinning down from the surface. Aforesaid, the black patches that remain fool the prey in to believing the orca is a collection of smaller animals. The counter shading also works when the orca is swimming below the prey. The animal will look down and see only hints of white and a black back that blends with the dark waters.”

 

Guide Photos

grizzly scaring salmon
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With all those salmon in the water one would think that it would be next to impossible NOT to catch one. The key to catching salmon is shallow water, as grizzly bears tend to grab the salmon with their mouth after they have pinned them to the bottom with their claws. In this photo the bear is in water over a meter (yard) deep so it becomes much more difficult to push a salmon from the surface to pin it on the bottom. The photo in the April 3rd posting is a better example of a successful grizzly bear fishing. The fall tours from the lodge are on the Glendale River, which provide a variety of locations and many opportunities to watch bears catching and eating the spawning salmon.