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.

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.

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.

 

Pre-Salmon Grizzly Bear

Grizzlies on the beach

This is a healthy spring / early summer grizzly. Grizzly bear viewing from Grizzly Bear Lodge is divided into two seasons, which are marked by the date August 25th. On the 25th we are permitted to use the viewing stands located on a man-made salmon spawning on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. Prior to this date our viewing is along the shore of the river’s estuary and in the river. This photo is from the shore in August prior to the arrival of the salmon. Once the salmon arrive we spend more time in the river and the bears start to show sign of the feeding on the salmon. The most obvious sign is much shorter legs. That is another way of saying that the grizzlies are starting to fatten and the size of their belly makes the legs appear shorter.

 

Grizzly flaying a salmon

Skinning a salmon

From Wikipedia: “Flaying, also known colloquially as skinning, is the removal of skin from the body. Generally, an attempt is made to keep the removed portion of skin intact.” This grizzly is doing an excellent job of flaying the salmon but I do not think that keeping the skin intact is important. The skin is often the first part of the salmon eaten not because it needs to be removed to get to the flesh but because of the layer of fat located directly beneath the skin. If the bears are selective in their eating because of the abundance of salmon or they are becoming full they will eat the skin, the brain and the roe (eggs) and leave the remainder of the salmon for the seagulls, bald eagles or other scavengers.

 

Grizzly mother sharing with triplets

Grizzly bears sharing salmon

The first year grizzly cubs we encounter in the viewing area of
Knight’s Inlet British Columbia are not normally able to catch their own salmon. Especially when the fishing requires them to be in the deeper water adjacent to the viewing platform, deep for them but not their mother. The adult grizzlies are able to pick salmon off the bottom that died because of the low water this summer that permitted the water temperature to rise and reduced the oxygen level to drop. Our viewing platform is located on the Glendale River, which is located, and hour and fifteen minute boat ride up Knight Inlet from the lodge.

 

A view form the platform

Grizzly bears fighting

The viewing platform use by Grizzly Bear Lodge is located overlooking the salmon holding area which is the entrance to a man-made spawning channel. The February 21st posting shows the abundance of salmon in this area and it is quite common that after the grizzlies (especially the sub-adult bears) have had their fill of salmon they start to play fight. This fighting is a family “thing” the bears do not normally interact with bears outside the family unit. On this day the fighting lasted about fifteen minutes before they moved the river likely to have a mid-morning rest (nap).

 

Grizzly mother and three cubs

Grizzly Bears in river

Prior to having access to the viewing stands on August 25th Grizzly Bear Lodge tours are in the river estuary and the tidal portion of the Glendale River. On this day our first sighting was a mother grizzly waiting in the river for salmon to swim close but after we had watched for a while it seemed more like she was in the river to get away from her second year cubs. The three cubs were in constant battle along the shore and in the water. When they spend that much time playing you know they are well fed and mom just wants some quite for a time. May need to click on the photo to view the grizzlies to the right.