Grizzly Watching

This appears to be an awkward pose, with one paw out straight, for a grizzly bear eating a salmon. This is one of the few bears that we have seen over the years that were injured in a fight. The front paw could not bare weight but this bear became an excellent fisher and was able to catch salmon and fatten for the winters denning. When last viewed in October this grizzly appeared to have put on enough fat to survive hibernation but next year will tell the story if it is back at the river.

By late May grizzly bears and cubs are starting to appear on the beaches to turnover rocks. The inter-tidal zone “food” is high in protein and contains crab, clams, barnacles, amphipods and other tiny invertebrates. The “beach food” is important because plant food is relatively scarce during spring as berries do not become part of the diet until July and bears will continue to loose weight until well into June. The cubs rely on mother’s milk that is better than 30% fat. Mother bears tend to be affectionate, protective, devoted, strict, sensitive and attentive toward their cubs, raising them to an age where they can survive on their own. In return the cubs at this age do not stray far from their mother’s side.

This was a close encounter with a mother grizzly and two cubs on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. Going up river in our skiff with four guests we met the bears coming down. I pulled the skiff to opposite side of the river to allow them to pass about fifteen meters (yards) away. No we were not in danger, as this seemed to be this family’s routine over a two-week period and they had become accustomed to the ritual. As can be seen toward the end of summer and into fall, bears sometimes shed a type of tapeworm, commonly called the broad fish tapeworm. As this photo shows it can sometimes be seen trailing behind them. Grizzly bears can become infected by the tapeworm from eating raw salmon. The physical effect of bears harbouring tapeworm parasites is insignificant to the bear’s health. This will slightly stress the bear, but generally it is not advantageous for the parasite to kill the host, since that would also result in the death of the parasite. This was the only bear I saw with a tapeworm last summer.

This is a grizzly bear destined to have a good hibernation. However according to the Natural History Museum grizzlies that live in climates with cold winters when food sources are limited spend the winter in a dormant or sleeping state.  This “sleeping period” is often referred to as “hibernation”, but it differs from true hibernation in several ways:
    –  In true hibernation, an animal’s body temperature drops to a few degrees above freezing and if disturbed it takes a couple of hours to wake up
    –  Although a sleeping Grizzly Bear’s body temperature is lower than normal, it is not as low as true hibernators and its respiration rate is only slightly below normal. During winter sleep, bears are alert and easily aroused.

The picture of the grizzly bear viewed in yesterday’s post was taken on July 13th and today’s was August 27th. The common denominator is both bears have very long looking legs because of the absence of the fat winter belly. The first bear has been grazing on sedge grass and turning over rocks for protein. This is a subsistence diet and not much weight gain for this bear. The second grizzly bear and cub have just started to fish for the salmon on the upper river and have not had a chance to put on the necessary bulk for hibernation. If you take time to check out the previous posts on June 4th and 8th you will see bears near the end of the season that have had time to add the necessary layers of fat to survive the winter. Or wait for tomorrows post and see a fat bear!!

A different set of siblings than yesterday’s post but still playing.  These two are later in the fall up the river below the viewing platform near the intake to the spewing channel. In this case they are tired of catching and eating the salmon that are here to spawn and taking a break to play fight. It was not serious because there are so many salmon and we had watched these two filling up on salmon for over an hour so no need to fight over the best fishing spot. The abundance of salmon is shown in the fact that the bears in the Glendale River are not scared nor do they shown open wounds as the bears from many of the rivers in Northern BC and Alaska.