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.

Guide Photos

eagle fishing
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Great photo of a bald eagle coming into land on a salmon carcass on the Glendale River. The eagles leave other parts of the BC coast to congregate at river mouths in the fall when the spawning salmon return. The eagles arrive shortly after the grizzly bears and for the same reason, free and easy food. Grizzly Bear Lodge’s spring and fall tours spend time on one Knight Inlets rivers which has the sedge grass for grizzly grazing in the spring and the salmon in the manmade spawning channel in the fall.

 

Guide Photos

waiting grizzlies
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These two juvenile sibling grizzly bears are waiting for a chance to move out into the river to fish for salmon. Being young they need to time their fishing to avoid the older males and the mothers with cubs. The area Grizzly Bear Lodge use on Knight Inlet for its tours has more than forty bears but there is such an abundance of food little fighting occurs and it is more about a bear timing its approach to the river.  From the size of these bears bellies they seem to be successful and should have no trouble reaching a weight which will carry them through hibernation.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly eating water grass
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In the spring an important part of a grizzly bear’s diet is high protein sedge grass.  This grass grows in the estuary of the Glendale River that is flooded with salt water at high tide. After the hour or so boat ride from Grizzly Bear Lodge to the river estuary we change boats for a large skiff which allows us to travel up the rive through the acres of sedge grass and obtain some close up photo of the bears grazing. This grizzly is letting us know that we may be with in its comfort zone and it is time to drift down river and give it room. Grizzly bears eat the grass in spring and early summer but once it goes to seed they move on to other food sources like salmon.

 

Guide Photos

dolphins speeding
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Pacific white sided dolphins travel in groups that are between 50 to 200 but on occasion will reach numbers of up to 2,000. These dolphins can travel quickly reaching speeds of up to 45 kph (30 mph). They are acrobatic with airborne flips and leaps can reach extreme heights. Like all dolphins they like to ride the bow wave of a boat and stick their nose into the prop wash. The best way to obtain a good photo is to spend twenty of thirty minutes in their presence and constantly take pictures and to hope there are some goods ones when you do your editing in the evening back at the lodge. All our day trips whether to the grizzly bears, whale watching or Trapper Rick’s often encounter pods of white sided dolphins.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly salmon under belly
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This past summer part of the early run of salmon into the spawning channel died because fresh cool water from the lake feeding the channel was not released soon enough. If the water in the spawning beds becomes too warm it loses oxygen and salmon suffocate. This photo shows a late August grizzly bear; late August because it does not have the fat belly it will have later in the season when one normally sees this number of dead uneaten salmon. The positive of the salmon kill is that many more bears came early to feed in the area of the spawning channel. Unfortunately the control of water to the spawning beds is not under the control of those most often in the area and it takes time for other to respond.

 

Guide Photos

timid grizzly cub
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The May grizzly cub shown in the April 8th posting shows by comparison the growth that takes place in a little over three months. Even without another grizzly in the photos the size difference is amazing. This growth is because grizzly bear milk contains up to 33 percent fat, more than that in heavy whipping cream. While whole milk just as it came from the cow contains about 3 1/2 percent milk fat. During this time the cubs alternate between nursing, grazing on sedge grass, a variety of berries and obtaining protein from under the rocks turned over on the beach.

 

Guide Photos

grizzlies three in a row
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The size of these second year cubs can be compared to the April 8th and 10th posting, which show first year cubs. Grizzly bear cubs generally stay with their mother for two years, although they will stay for three or four if the sow does not become pregnant in the fall of their second year. Pregnancy triggers a reaction in the sow through which she drives the cubs off and hibernates on her own in preparation for giving birth to new cubs the following spring. Cubs will often spend their first hibernation together, and three-year olds observed in frequent close proximity in the spring are most likely to be siblings who have denned together. Even second year cubs stay close to their mother especially when they are on a fishing river in the presence of other bears.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly face off
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Most disputes between grizzly bears over the best fishing spots end with one side deciding that the amount and the ease of catching salmon does not warrant getting hurt. In this case the reddish grizzly is also defending the fishing area for two cubs and it is not good to upset a mother. This photo was taken in the fall just below the viewing stands on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. The grizzly watching tours from the lodge normally views a variety of bear activity from feeding to feuding and all that lies in between.

 

Guide Photos

young bald eagle
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Bald eagles are common on all day tours whether on the grizzly bear tour, whale watching safari or the extra day wildlife trip to the Kakweikan River and Trapper Rick. In the fall when the salmon are spawning in Knight Inlet’s Glendale River the eagles come down to the riverbank to feed on dead salmon. All birds of prey find it easier to eat carrion than catch their own food and a riverbank full of spawned out salmon is the ideal place. On our skiff rides up the river adult and juveniles eagles remain on the riverbank and refuse to leave their meals while we pass close. As shown in this photo we tend to get the “eagle eye” as if to say, “this is mine, keep going”.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly hiding
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An interesting photo of a grizzly bear taken in the spring.  This is the estuary at the mouth of Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. In the spring we travel up the inlet for a little over an hour, looking for black bear, eagles, dolphins and whales along the way, to the river estuary. Upon arriving we transfer to a large shallow draft flat-bottom skiff used for viewing along the shore and up the river. The protein rich sedge grass growing in the area attracts the bears and offers great viewing opportunities. This is large bear walking through a patch of grass. Large because the sedge grass is normally better than a meter (three feet) tall.