Grizzly Bear and Wildlife Viewing Blog: Monthly Archives: March 2015

Grizzly Family Fishing

Grizzly bear triplets

This mother and her cubs had spent the better part of an hour fishing behind the viewing stands on the Glendale River. After August 25th we are permitted to travel by truck to the viewing stands, which are about a fifteen-minute ride from the dock where we moor our boat. The stands have the natural river on two sides and the entrance to a man-made spawning channel on the third. These bears were catching and eating salmon when they decided to move off into the surrounding area likely to nurse. Even though the cubs were eating salmon they will still nurse. “Grizzly bear cubs will nurse for up to three years. Depending on when a grizzly mother bear wants to wean her cubs, a decision often made when she decides it’s time to mate again, she will keep producing milk for up to three years. However, grizzly cubs begin eating solid food from an early age and can very quickly become not dependent on mama’s milk.” From the Get Bear Smart Society website

 

Grizzly Bear Faceoff? 2 of 2

Grizzlies meet and fight

The clouds moved then the sun came out and the grizzlies decided to play. We were sitting in a 5.5 meter (yard) long skiff in the Glendale River estuary as these two siblings spent more than a half-hour entertaining us. It was late August, a warm day, and a great day to be playing in the water especially if you were wearing a fur coat.

 

Grizzly Bear Faceoff? 1 of 2

Grizzlies meeting

It is common for grizzly bears to meet in the grizzly bear viewing area used by Grizzly Bear Lodge. In the spring there are more than a dozen bears that frequent the area and in the fall once the salmon have arrived that number climbs to almost fifty bears. Serious fighting that ends up in injury is rare as the grizzlies all have the same goal “food”. It does not benefit a bear to be injured and therefore be unable to fatten for the winter hibernation. Most encounters leave both bears with “pride” intact as they go their own way.

 

Humpback Whale Backward Tail Lobbing

Humpback tail lobbing

Yes that humpback whale is slapping the water with the upper-side of its tail. That means that it is on its back and slapping downward. With the increase number of humpback whales that spend the summer in our viewing area, often viewing ten or twelve whales each trip; we view more interesting behaviour. In the past summer tail lobbing, lunge feeding and breaching are common place. For the first time there has been a whale bubble feeding and this is a rare behaviour. Rare because it is one whale bubble feeding rather than a group. The whale swims in a circle blowing bubbles to keep the herring inside the ring and then turns and lunges up through it’s own bubbles.

 

Pacific Whitesided Dolphins

Pacific whitsides

Not a bad photo for a one-handed shot with a small camera while running the boat and staying with the dolphins. The dolphins seem to love to come and play with the boat and nine miles an hour is the speed that works. The dolphins are found in the inlets as well as while whale watching in the Johnstone Strait area. This means that there are opportunities to see dolphins while travelling up Knight Inlet to view the grizzly bears as well as on the extra day trip to visit Trapper Rick.

 

Grizzly Nursing at Low Tide

Nursing Grizzly

Early August and we are in the Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. The guests are in the 5.5 meter (yard) skiff we use once we arrive from Grizzly Bear Lodge. Your guide is in the water moving the skiff up river to get a good view of two grizzly cubs nursing. Not a great photo but remember that I am in the river towing a skiff and therefore using a small Pentax Optio WPi (waterproof) camera. I know the guest’s photos were much better as part of the evening back at the lodge is guests comparing their day. The comparison leads to an exchange of emails so they can trade photos.

 

Adult Grizzlies Show an Interest

Grizzly watching?

It is not only the cubs (see March 12th posting) who are interested in the wildlife viewers in the platform overlooking the Glendale River. Even with camera’s flashes turned off the clicking of the shutter will often interest the grizzlies. It may have been a sudden movement from above or something knocking against a railing. It is not as if we were a 100 meters (yards) away it is more like 30 meters and at times they are beneath the platform. This bear was coming up the bank while moving from the natural river into the spawning area.

A day with Trapper Rick

Hike to Trappers

The extra day in camp is spent with Trapper Rick. We cross Knight Inlet through Thompson Sound to the Kakweikan River, which is located on the BC mainland. We travel by road to the river near Rick’s cabin, cross the river by boat and a short hike to the cabin. The above photo shows part of the trail and no the guest is not walking on his own Rick is in front and I am bringing up the rear. Guests are always in the middle with a guide at either end. The photo below shows the view from the front of Rick’s cabin over looking the lower river and the pools were we will spend time waiting for and on most days watching grizzlies come to feed on the salmon. While on the Kakweikan River there is an opportunity to spin fish for salmon, to hike but most guest prefer to enjoy Rick’s company and listen to his many stories of trapping in the area.

Trapper Rick's scenery

 

 

 

Departure from Grizzly Bear Lodge

Guests good morning

It must be close to 7:30 am as the guests are on the dock and ready to leave for a day of wildlife viewing. In the morning guests are called for breakfast at 6:30 for the 7:30 departure. The red / orange float suits are your government approved life jackets and as one of my guest said like wearing a duvet, in this case a warm waterproof duvet. On the dock is the picnic lunch for the boat. These lunches are always popular with the guests and our cooks philosophy is “that if the basket comes back almost empty she did not pack enough” it does not matter if the guest ate twice their body weight in food. Note that it is a maxim of four guests per boat and often less.

 

Unhappy Grizzly Bear Cub

Grizzly cub waiting

This photo was taken on August 25th the first day that we are permitted to use the viewing platform on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. The river is an hour and fifteen-minute boat ride from Grizzly Bear Lodge located on Minstrel Island. This cub did not appear to like the water and kept returning to this rock and watching us in the viewing platform that overlooks the pool adjacent to the spawning channel. This cub was one of three siblings, which spent time with their mother fishing in the river, which is part of the viewing area. After our first week on the stands these cubs paid little attention to the “watchers” and more time eating.