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 with two two-year old cubs

Grizzly mother and cubs

Grizzly mother fishingThe abundance of salmon in the Glendale River means the grizzly bears are not very aggressive and tend to be more tolerant of each other.  This makes for a safer location for mothers to bring their cubs to learn to fish for salmon. The first photo provide by James O’Donoghue shows a mother leading her two cubs into the fishing area and by their size these cubs would be in their second summer with mom. It is time to learn to catch salmon as it could be their last year before they are on their own although some cubs do spend a third season with mom. If you check out the waters around the bears there are not many salmon in the river so it must be early in the season this means today’s lesson may be one in patience.

 

Eagle salmon fishing with the grizzly bears

EagleGreater Blue Heron

Excellent photos from UK’s James O’Donoghue.  While in the viewing stands on the Glendale River there is always activity if you tire to the bears take time for some eagle action or blue herons.   The grizzly bears are constantly leaving partially eaten salmon on the shore, which makes the eagles life much easier while the heron are searching for small trout.  This eagle appears to be coming to claim some prey either a fresh salmon on a carcass.  If you check the feathers above the talons they are wet making me think that a water catch was missed.  In the fall the eagle move from other areas along the British Columbia coast to the river where the is much more food and thus providing or guest with great opportunities for photo like this one.

Grizzly Bears and deep water salmon fishing

Grizzly Bear with pink salmon

The area Grizzly Bear Lodge uses for viewing bears in the fall is on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River.  The viewing stands are a fifteen minute van ride up the river and are located right on the river a few meters (yards) from the waters edge.  Some parts of the viewing area are in shallow water where the bears are seen chasing the salmon and catching them on the surface.  This takes quite a bit of energy and time as the fish are fast. Other bears prefer to conserve their energy and fish in the deep water, which requires bears to dive to pick up dead or wounded salmon that have drift down from up stream. When deep water fishing it is often easier to walk to shore to eat than constantly diving to retrieve the dropped meat. James O’Donoghue of the UK provided this photo.

Glendale River Knight Inlet BC

Pilings Glendale River BC

This is a scene of peace and serenity, the was picture taken by guest Debbie Zygmunt from the dock in the estuary of the Glendale River on Knight Inlet.  The grizzly bear tours leaving Grizzly Bear Lodge travel for about an hour up Knight Inlet to the Glendale. We spend the morning and part of the afternoon viewing grizzly bears in the estuary in the spring or on the river in the fall after the pink salmon have arrived.  A picnic lunch is served on the dock each tour at mid day.  The pilings in the picture are located near the end of the dock supported the original landing for a logging camp the was on the shore up until the nineteen fifties.  The shore opposite the dock has similar pilings from a salmon cannery that operated in the nineteen twenties.

Grizzly Bear in tall Sedge Grass

Grizzly Bear in grrass

No this is not a cub but rather an adult grizzly bear sitting in sedge grass.  The grass in the estuary of Knight Inlet’s Glendale River is better than a meter (3 feet) high.  In the spring bears come to this area to feed on the sedge grass is it up to 25% protein and as the berries in the coastal forests are not yet available this is the reason why grizzly bears are in the estuary.  At lower tides when more of the beach is exposed the bears will spent more time turning over rocks in the inter-tidal zone looking for food high in protein such as crab, clams, barnacles, amphipods and other tiny invertebrates. Much a grizzly’s time in the spring is spent in search of food this changes in the fall once the salmon arrive and food is more abundant. Photo by guest Debbie Zygmunt.

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Classic Grizzly Bear Pose Knight Inlet

Classic Grizzly Pose

Guest Debbie Zygmut has taken a picture of the classic grizzly bear pose in the estuary of the Glendale River part the Knight Inlet river systems. Standing in the sedge grass head up trying to catch our scent. A grizzly bears sense of smell is better than a dogs as National Geographic says:  “Grizzly bears have “dish-shaped noses” with a sense of smell seven times stronger than a bloodhound’s.”  A common misconception is that bears have poor eyesight. The reasons behind this may be that their sense of smell is so good they need to rely less on eyesight, but evidence indicates that bears’ eyesight is comparable to humans.

Grizzly Bear Siblings NOT sharing salmon

My Salmon

As stated in yesterdays post; although the grizzly bear siblings may spend their first three or four years together it does not mean they will share their salmon catch. Sleeping and denning together is one thing but food is survival and that becomes an individual matter.  It is common to see the sibling sub-adults traveling together in the spring in Knight Inlet’ Glendale River estuary and even on the river later in the fall when the pink salmon arrive in the river.  They may have shared their mother’s food but not the food they catch.

Grizzly Bear Siblings Salmon Fishing

Grizzly siblings fishing

Alone and vulnerable sibling grizzly bears of the Knight Inlet area often stay together until they are three or four years old often fishing, eating and sleeping side-by-side, and even denning together. The average breeding age for female grizzlies is 4.5 years. Males reach sexual maturity at roughly the same age as the females.  Sub-adult females tend to establish home ranges within or overlapping their mother’s home range. Sub-adult males are usually discouraged from staying in the same area by the larger males and must travel large distances to establish a home range. And even though these sub-adult males are capable of breeding at three or four years of age, they rarely have the opportunity to do so because of these older, bigger males.

Grizzly Bear Identification Knight Inlet

Grizzly

Another day another grizzly bear close to the viewing stands.  No I am not trying to pass yesterdays post off as a different bear this one has a leaf on it’s back.  Actually if you look at the shoulder you will notice this bear does not have the light patches on the fur on it’s neck or behind the shoulder.  Coat colours and a variety of colour patches on their body identify the bears in our viewing area.  Unlike bears in other areas in BC or Alaska our bears are nearly scar free.  There is sufficient food that they do not fight enough to hurt or leave scars rather they just get aggressive enough to move bears to another part of the river.

 

Grizzly Bear Under Viewing Stand

Grizzly Under Viewing Stand

Large Grizzly A day trip from the lodge means we travel up Knight Inlet to the Glendale River. In the fall the viewing time in the stands for Grizzly Bear Lodge is from 10:00 am to 12:00 am.  The stands being a 20-minute van ride up a logging road, which parallels the river.  The grizzly bears have accepted our presence and tend to ignore the stands and will pass close and even under the stands.  The key is no flashes on cameras, no perfumes or other scents on the watchers, definitely no food, talking in quite voices and no sudden moves.  Although the bears ignore if we overstep the guidelines they will turn in our direction and stare to let us know “they know”.