The fight is over and time to go back to waiting and being bored. The only one really upset is the crow as it lost its chance to scavenge.
Grizzly Watching
Grizzly Bears are magnificent and the biggest reason visitors choose our lodge!
Grizzly bears thrive here and the viewing opportunities are spectacular. We have operated our Grizzly Bear Lodge for decades and know the prime spots for bear watching. The ultimate grizzly bear photo opportunities.
Grizzly Bear Cubs 2 of 3
The “mouthing” from yesterday’s post turned into a fight that lasted three or four minutes. Does not seem like a long time but the guests got some great photos. Note that the crow is still in the background eating.
Grizzly Bear Cubs 1 of 3
It starts mostly out of boredem as the cubs wait for their mother to catch a salmon. Notice the crow in the background picking up pieces of salmon. That is where the mother grizzly shares the samon with her cubs. Also notice in the lower lefthand cornes of the photo mother’s backside.
Grizzly Waiting for Lunch
This was the before photo for the Nov. 7th posting. Not all grizzly bears are good salmon catchers but this one had the patience to wait and save energy until a fish came close. The photo was taken from the viewing stands that we use after August 24th.
Fall Grizzly Bear Fishing
This is the more “expected photo” of a grizzly bear than yesterdays posting. In late August once the salmon have arrived in the rivers of Knight Inlet the grizzlies have access to their preferred food – salmon. This is the food that provides the necessary calories for the bears to add the layer of fat need for them to survive hibernation.
Spring Grizzly Bear Grazing
“Bears are omnivores that have relatively unspecialized digestive systems similar to those of carnivores. The primary difference is that bears have an elongated digestive tract, an adaptation that allows bears more efficient digestion of vegetation than other carnivores (Herrero 1985). Unlike ruminants, bears do not have a cecum and can only poorly digest the structural components of plants (Mealey 1975). To compensate for inefficient digestion of cellulose, bears maximize the quality of vegetal food items ingested, typically foraging for plants in phenological stages of highest nutrient availability and digestibility (Herrero 1985).” From Yellowstone
National Park website. Its fun to quote sites that give scientific facts for: – grizzlies eat anything and in the spring sedge grass is consumed in great amounts because they are not cows and have a hard time digesting the high protein sedge grass. But it is still strange seeing such a large animal with a fierce reputation eating grass.
Evening Black Bear Tour 2 0f 2
Yes this is an evening black bear tour and this is a mother grizzly bear with two first year cubs. This bear spent most of the summer in an area that was less then a twenty minute boat ride from the lodge. Some mornings she was observed on the way to the whales and other evening on a black bear tour. This evening we followed them along the shore for close to an hour which extended our evening tour so we got back just before dark. Our lodge does not have a tight schedule requiring us to be back at the lodge at a set time so if we find something worth watching, we watch.
Dolphins playing on tour
Pacific white-sided dolphins have a “good” habit of enjoying playing with a boat. Slowing a boat to 7 or 8 mph seems to provide a reason for this change in behaviour. The dolphins will pace the boat, nose into the prop wash of the motor and even ride the bow wave. They will often play for fifteen or twenty minutes then abruptly stop and go their way, This is the signal they have had enough and it is time to hunt for food.
Busy black bear
Any bear with three cubs has a full time job to find enough to eat to produce the milk to keep a family fed. This photo was taken by Glen one of the camp guides on a morning tour to view grizzly bears. The rock ledge on the way up Knight Inlet is cover with barnacles and seaweed. The barnacles are food for the bear and by looking as the white area (that is where the barnacles have been scrapped away and eaten) it is easy to see that this bear has been busy. The cubs being to young to scrap the barnacles wait for mum to provide the milk.
Grizzly Bear Waiting
The splash in the lower right corner of this photo has the grizzlies full attention. The splash is from a school of salmon moving up river and this means it is lunchtime. The grizzly is waiting in a deep pool for the salmon to cross over a shallow bar. In most cases the grizzly would be in the shallow water as it is easier to catch the salmon but not all bears are created equal and this bear soon learned that deep water is not the best place to wait.
