Grizzly Watching

This is the look you get from a grizzly bear when the current pushes you within their comfort zone. The happened this past September on the way down Knight Inlet coming back from the day’s grizzly watching tour. We were looking for black bear when one of my guests spotted this grizzly eating kelp on the shore. We turned off the motor and let the tide do the rest and unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your viewpoint) we drifted closer than we should have but in deep water. With tide and wind it is impossible to paddle the larger boat and we did not want to start the motor and scare the bear. We eventually moved past the grizzly which remained on the beach eating.

These three bears are walking up the river to the holding pool were the salmon wait until they move up to and over the weir into the spawning channel. The second stand in on the bank beside the pool which contains the salmon that these bears are coming to catch.

June 4th mentions the viewing stands we use. There are two stands on a Knight Inlet river. The first is located directly opposite the entrance to the man made spawning channel. If you take the time to go to to “Categories” and select “Wildlife Tour Itinerary” on the left side of this posting you will have an excellent aerial view of our viewing area. The metal weir in this photo is to maintain the water level for the spawning salmon. We normally use the second stand as it has a more natural setting as tomorrow’s post will show….

This grizzly bear was about two hundred meters (yards) from the loading ramp in yesterday’s post. It was not concerned as we moved slowly along the shore and made our way back to the dock for lunch. It was taking a break from chasing salmon on the river as the tide was to low and the salmon were just out of reach in the deeper pools. Once the tide rose some the bear was back on the river as the salmon were able to move up the river to the spawning areas.

We are permitted to use the grizzly bear viewing stands on the Glendale River after August 24th. Our viewing time is from 10:00 am to noon and after that we return to the float for a picnic lunch. Prior to this date the skiff is used to cruse the shore of Knight Inlet’s Glendale Cove and to go up the river itself. On this day we took a detour along the shore to view the grizzly in tomorrow’s posting….

These are all first year grizzly bear cubs however one in noticeably smaller. This photo was taken on a grizzly trip in early September but by the end of the month the small cub was no longer with it’s mother.

This grizzly bear was becoming annoyed with her second year cubs. She was in the holding pool directly below our viewing platform trying to catch salmon but the cubs were not giving her enough room to work. A couple of “growls” and the cubs moved off and mom was successful and able to share her catch.