Some days are complete even before you leave the dock.
Grizzly Bear and Wildlife Viewing Blog: Yearly Archives: 2015
Running with dolphins
Once you are with a large pod of pacific whitesided dolphins they are everywhere. They seem to like 8 mph (GPS speed) as a speed for running along side the boat. Glenn took this photo of my guests not believing what they were seeing. Note the glare from my head. Besides running beside the boat they follow in the wake and stick their nose within one meter (yard) of the motor’s prop. The key to operating the boat is to maintain a constant speed and direction or the dolphins will leave.
Grizzlies fighting over territory?
Not a territorial fight rather siblings play-fighting. In the spring and early summer there are eight or ten bears we see on most days and there may be the same number further up the river. In the fall once the salmon arrive the number of bears in the area has been estimated as high as fifty. The interesting fact about the bears in the Glendale River valley is that there is so much food that it does not pay to fight because an injury at that time of the year means you may not survive hibernation.
Grizzly Bear Fishing
When there is an abundance of salmon grizzly bears become selective. Male salmon because they do not contain high fat roe (eggs) are second choice. We watched this bear pass several males until it selected a female. Also this was late September and the grizzlies had been feeding on salmon for a month and a half, which also makes them more selective as they bulk up for hibernation.
Confusing orca photo
These two orca / killer whales passed under our boat and surfaced a few meters (yards) away. Explanation: looking at the photo their appears to be a dorsal fin at the top of the photo but it cannot be from the main orca because that would mean it was coming out of it’s belly. The belly of an orca is white and it is possible to see the tip of the tail at the end of the photo. So it could be one orca diving over the back of another or the dorsal fin could be the tail of another orca and the second one is following too close. Either way it was close.
Learn through imitation 2 of 2
On grizzly bears tours from the lodge in the spring we watch the grizzlies along the shore scrapping mussels and barnacles from logs and turning over rocks for high in protein food made up of crab, clams, amphipods and other tiny invertebrates. This cub less than six months old is already turning over rocks to supplement mothers milk, which has 4.5 times more fat and 17 times more protein than human milk.
Learn through imitation 1 of 2
The first and second year grizzly bear cubs we observe on our tours in the area of Knight Inlet are learning the necessary life skills from their mother. In this case it sat in the water held the salmon in one paw and started to eat. Rolling rocks is tomorrow’s post.
Humpback Whale Close
If I recall this photo correctly it was one on the few times I have seen a humpback whale passing under our boat. We often eat our picnic lunch in the same area that the humpbacks are feeding. Of course at lunchtime the motor is off and we drift quietly. It is common at this time for whales to surface near the boat but this was the rare time when it continued and we could see it under the boat.
Grizzly Bear Siblings
Female grizzlies reach sexual maturity at 4.5 years and males at roughly the same age as their female counterparts. For this reason it is common for siblings to stay together after they leave their mother and even den together until one becomes pregnant and dens on her own. These siblings may share a den, spend time together and fish together but they will not share this salmon. When if comes to food it is “winner keeps not shares”.
Big enough for a small Grizzly
This photo shows a large male black bear in the late fall. Late fall because it has had a long time to fatten on all the berries and the protein it scavenged from the beach. On your first evening on the lodge we go on an hour plus tour looking for black bear and every trip from the lodge runs along the shore looking for black bears. This past season all the guests saw grizzlies but not everyone saw a black bear. The berries were plentiful this year and lasted longer than normal so there were fewer bears on the beach. However the bears we saw were big.
