An incredible photo of a Humpback whale lunge feeding up through a ball of herring. As the photo shows these whales have throat groves that run from chin to navel. The grooves allow the throat to expand and take in large volumes of water and food into the mouth. As the mouth closes the whale presses down with its tongue forcing all water out through baleen plates. The photo shows that the baleen plates hang in row from each side of the upper jaw. Baleen is made of a similar protein to the human fingernail; they are very strong and flexible.
This is a rare site a grizzly with four cubs and you will need to look hard to find the fourth cub. Grizzly bears can give birth to up to four cubs, although litters of two and three are most common. The number of cubs that are born depends on how healthy and fat a mother is at the time she enters the den.
“Grizzly bears typically mate between May and early July. Although grizzlies have a gestation period of only 6-8 weeks, birth doesn’t actually occur until 6 months later in dead of winter. How is this possible? Upon conception a fertilized egg begins to divide until it gets about the size of a pinhead and is called a blastocyst. In some mammals like humans, the blastocyst implants into the uterine wall within a week of conception where it continues to grow until birth. Female bears however have evolved “delayed implantation” whereby the blastocyst does not implant into the uterine wall until late fall, just before a grizzly mother enters her den for the winter. Within a week of conception (during the spring) the blastocyst enters a state of dormancy. In late fall the blastocyst will implant into the grizzly mother’s uterus if she is fat and healthy enough to support cubs during the winter hibernation. If she is under severe stress, and under nourished, the blastocyst will simply be reabsorbed into her body. The number of cubs in her litter is also determined by how healthy and fat the mother is in the fall. A really fat and healthy mother may give birth to up to four cubs, whereas a marginally fat mother may only give birth to one or two cubs.” Delayed implantation in grizzly bears from GrizzlyBay.org
If you read the posting from Jan 1 about the location of the viewing stands when we leave the finger viewing stand we are required to back the SUV past the upper end of the spawning channel. We tend to do this quite slowly to enable some interesting pictures. This picture is of a first year grizzly bear cub sitting mid-channel waiting for a salmon actually waiting for it’s mother to bring it a salmon as first year cubs do not catch many salmon. This area would provide for many more great photos if it were not for the trees along the bank but these are necessary to provide shade so the water does not become too hot. If the water heats up it tends to hold less oxygen and salmon will suffocate. This happened this August as the temperature rose the water intake from Tom Blown Lake was not regulated correctly and there was insufficient fresh water into the spawning channel and hundreds of salmon died.
Excellent picture of two orca (killer whales) on a day whale watching in Johnstone Strait adjacent to Vancouver Island. Any photo showing the white eye patch or the white under belly of an orca is great but to have one photo showing both on two different killer whales is excellent. This female and juvenile orca are members of the resident or fish eating orca that spend their summers in the area near Telegraph Cove. This whale watching area is fifty minute boat ride from the lodge and contains a variety of marine life from orca, humpback whales, harbour seals, Steller sealions, dolphins, porpoise as well as bald eagles and a variety of ducks and gulls.
Grizzly bears that fish in the holding pool next to Grizzly Bear Lodges viewing stands on British Columbia’s Glendale River normally take the salmon to bank to eat because of the deep water in the centre of the pool. If you look closely there is another salmon by its front paw and several more in the water. Grizzlies fishing further up the channel often wound salmon, which later die and drift into the holding pool making it in ideal fishing area for the bears, which want to conserve energy. Bears are able to reach into the water and pull up salmon with little effort while grizzlies on the other side of the stand actually work for their catch.
This photo of a great pose for a grizzly bear was taken from the viewing stand located on BC west coast (Knight Inlet’s Glendale River). The viewing stands are an hour and quarter boat ride from Grizzly Bear Lodge on Minstrel Island as well as a fifteen-minute truck ride once you have reached the mouth of the Glendale River. Once in the stands grizzly bears may appear on any side as you are at the end of a finger of land. The natural river is on two sides; the holding pool to the weir, which is the entrance to the spawning channel is the third and the road down the finger to the stands makes the forth side. In this case the bear is coming up the bank from the natural river and crossing the road to the holding pool.
A small pod of resident orca passes behind the boat in a resting line. Like other cetaceans, orca are conscious breathers and must stay awake to breathe. Though they rest, they never fall fully asleep like humans. They synchronize their dives making four or five faster shallow dive then one much longer rest dive. During the longer dive they may travel a hundred plus meters (yards) before surfacing. Resting lines definitely create problem in foggy weather, as it becomes very easy to lose track of the pod.
An excellent photo taken by James Wendy of Australia showing the inside of a humpback whale’s mouth. It is interesting to note that this whale came out of the water and held this position for close to thirty seconds while James manages to get several great pictures. “Baleen is a strong, yet flexible material made out of keratin, a protein that is the same material that makes up our hair and fingernails. It is used by whales to filter their prey from the sea water. Some baleen whales, like the humpback whale, feed by gulping large amounts of prey (in our area herring) and water and then using their tongue to force the water out in between the baleen plates.”About.com Marine Life
It is said that an orca’s eyesight is equally good in or out of the water. In fact it is thought they use eyesight when ‘spyhopping’ to spot boats that may present a danger. Orca do not seem to fear boats but once a motor is turned off and no sound is coming from the boat it becomes harder for them to locate. “Orcas possess sophisticated underwater sonar that enables them to perceive their surroundings ten times more effectively than our most advanced equipment.” (http://www.orcafree.org) However a boat’s shallow draft may make it harder to locate and thus the need for an occasional spyhop. Great photo from James Wendy of Australia.
The two viewing stands used by Grizzly Bear Lodge on our wildlife tours in Knight Inlet seem to attract bears. They show no fear of the red and orange suited guests or the click of cameras as they pass beneath the stands. The main attraction is salmon. The grizzly bears have a limited time to add enough fat to survive hibernation. Once the salmon arrive in mid August and we are permitted to use the stands after August 24th we view bears eating salmon. If cubs do not add enough fat they will not survive hibernation and if expectant mothers body fat is not high enough the fertilized eggs will be absorbed and fewer cubs will be born for the next year. Pausing to see the roses does not seem to be an option for grizzly bears this time of the year.
Just like that our season has come to an end. I would like to thank all of our wonderful guests and staff who made this year a huge success. I am happy to stay that all of our team is planning to return next season. We are actively taking bookings, with dates starting June 1 2025. Hope to see many of you next season.
The wildlife viewing this season was awesome. A couple highlights that come to mind was the shear number of salmon in our local rivers, as well as the abundance of Resident Orca. With salmon returns being so strong this year, we were happy to see bears in excellent condition. By the end of our season most of the bears had packed on a lot of weight and were getting very “picky” about what parts of the salmon they would eat. Hopefully this will translate into more cubs being born this winter. Another positive was the weather conditions. We had enough rain to keep our fire risks low and it made for some excellent wild berries. The bears took full advantage of this, with the berry season extending far past its normal conclusion. This did mean that we had to work hard to find bears during our summer season, (as they were often feeding on the berries deep into the forest), but moving forward it is excellent that they had such an abundant food supply. The Humpbacks also didn’t disappoint, with great numbers and a few new calves returning with their mothers to feed. After a slower year for resident Orca sightings, this season was one of the best that I can remember. In fact as Im writing this the A62 and A23’s are still being spotted in the area by dedicated biologists. Strong numbers of Chinook and Chum salmon are providing them with a steady food source. There are a lot of positive signs and we are hopeful that 2025 will be another great season.
Over the winter and spring we will be doing some repairs and maintenance. We plan on having a new cedar front deck built in time for the 2025 season, as well as new ceilings and paint in parts of the lodge and rooms. Theres always projects on the go.
Felix, Julien, Ryan, Zack and Myself all look forward to welcoming guest in June. See everyone soon.
