Grizzly Bear and Wildlife Tour Blog

We offer an exceptional fly-in lodge for Grizzly Bear Watching and Whale Watching in British Columbia.

Learn about What’s happening at the Lodge, view our British Columbia’s Wildlife Report, read our Grizzly Bear Watching Blog and Whale Watching Blog. Learn more about a Day on the River Blog, see Our Tour Guide’s Photos & Blog and  Photos from Our Guests.

Sea lions on whale watching safari

sea lion with brand
Click to enlarge

Steller sea lions often “haul out” on the rocks near Stubs Island located not far from Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island.  They pass through this area in the spring and fall traveling between California and Alaska.  The sea lion numbers are on a decline along the West Coast of North America and a branding identification program has been underway for about fifteen years. “The two sites chosen to mark Steller pups were Pyramid Rock at Rogue Reef, Oregon and Southwest Seal Rock at St. George Reef in northern California. These sites are the largest Steller sea lion rookeries in the lower forty eight states. Steller sea lion pups were branded along the left flank. Sea lions branded at Rogue Reef, Oregon have a letter R following the numbered digit (i.e. 25R). Quote from Patrick J. Gearin
NOAA, AFSC, National  marine Mammal Laboratory” Several of these branded sea lions are seen each summer and sightings are reported.

Guest question about grizzly bears

large male grizzly
Click to enlarge

An often asked questions from the guests a Grizzly Bear Lodge is: Is that a male or female grizzly?  Some guidelines we use to go by are: The male is usually bigger and his head appears to be smaller in comparison to his body. Females appear to have shorter legs and are a bit more squat in appearance. The body difference is often hard to determine unless there are several grizzlies together. And of course in the spring when they have not had time to fatten on the salmon it may be even harder to determine the difference. In the May and June the mating season the male has a swagger, often walking with a swaying walk with their hind legs farther apart than normal. The tried and true way to tell the males from the females (as shown in this picture) is to watch them urinate. The males urinate forward, and the females backward! This picture also reinforces something I was told by a friend who spends allot of time in the bush “If you take a drink of water from a river or stream do not walk up river and look around he corner.”

Whale watching safari

dolphins playing

On the whale watching day we frequently encounter pacific white side dolphins. The area along BC’s coast between Vancouver Island and the mainland has become a feeding area for the dolphins. Until twenty years ago they rarely appeared in fact so rare that native people did not have a name for them in their language. Now these dolphins are becoming more common in our viewing area. We see pods of several hundred.

 

Grizzly Bear at ease

Grizzly on rock

This photo of a grizzly bear must be before all the fish appear in Knight Inlet’s Glendale River, as I do not see many fish in the water. Maybe why we have a “standing lean”, at least a better chance of seeing fish when they come. Our grizzly bear tours after August 25 leave the estuary and take place up the river where there is better chance of viewing bears as that is where the salmon are going to spawn.

 

Whale watching makes a splash

Humpback whale tail slapping

We know what is happening not sure why it is happening. The “Whale Trust website” says the tail lob or tail slap occurs when the whale extends its tail fluke above the water and slaps it forcibly down on the surface. This can be “right way up”, slapping the underneath side of the flukes on the water, or the reverse, with the whale belly-up slapping the dorsal (top-side) of the flukes on the water. This often, but not always, occurs many (35+) times in a row. As with the other behaviors, the meaning behind this behavior is unknown, but it has been speculated that it may be a way to ward off other whales, or to the contrary, to invite other whales to join a group. The explanation seems clear as mud but is sure exciting to watch.  This photo by Gary Wilson was from the area of Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island.

 

Brown Bear Knight Inlet BC

Grizzly / Brown Bear

Is photo by Tim O’Neil of a brown bear or a grizzly bear? It’s either or both, because these are common names that have no scientific basis. Grizzly bears received their name because their brown fur can be tipped with white. This gives them a “grizzled” look, especially when blacklit by the sun. All the bears in North America are the same subspecies except one subspecies that occurs in the Kodiak Island.  The bears in BC’s rainforest are known as grizzly bears.  The Knight Inlet grizzly’s colour ranges from a very light brown which is almost yellow in some bears and almost white in others to a dark brown which may appear black.

 

Orca Identification on Whale Watching Safari

Orca-A72

Tim O’Neil does it again, an excellent photo of A72.  Resident and transient orca along the coast of British Columbia have photo identification catalogues that make use their unique dorsal fin and saddle patch to identified each orca. Some ID’s are easy and this is one of the easy ones.  The notch in the front of this female’s fin identifies her, as A72 she was born in 1999 daughter of A50 born is 1964. A50 is daughter of the pod’s matriarch A30 born in 1947. The Orcas live in a matriarchal community. The females live much longer than the males, and therefor have more valuable experiences, which make them the dominant.  The males stay with their mother all their life and breed outside their pod. The pods are named after the dominant female in this case A30 and they are members of the northern resident orcas which spend the summer in the waters north of Campbell River close to Telegraph Cove in the Johnstone Strait. 

 

Humpback Whale lunge feeding

 

Click on photo to enlarge
Click on photo to enlarge

An add on to yesterday’s posting Luwen & Liwen from Singapore have provides an excellent photo of a humpback whale lunge feeding in the waters off Blackfish Sound’s Bold Head a short boat ride from Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island. A whale watching trip from the lodge involves a fifty minute boat ride to this area where there is an abundance of marine life including pacific white-sided dolphins, dall’s porpoise, harbour porpoise, harbour seals, steller sea lions, orca, a variety of birdlife including eagles, common murre, surf scooter, rhinocerous auklet, pigen guillemot, marbled murrelet, great blue heron, cormorants, storm petrels, and a large variey of “sea gull”. Added to this is a good chance of seeing a black bear on the way to the area.

 

Dall’s Porpoise – Johnstone Strait

Dall's Porpoise

No this is not a baby orca it is a Dall’s Porpoise often called a “false orca”.  To be honest it is the only picture of a dall’s porpoise that I have in my blog collection and I have allot of photos from allot of guests and Tim O’Neil from the UK is the only one that I know that has a decent photo.  It took quit a bit of maneuvering in the boat and much patience on Tim’s part to get this picture.  As you can see it from the photo it was a perfect day whale watching in the area of Johnstone Strait near Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island.   A dall’s porpoise lays claim to being the fastest marine mammal. “Some marine mammals can swim at relatively high speeds. Sea lions swim up to 35 kph and orcas can reach 50 kph. The fastest marine mammal, however, is the common dolphin, which reaches speeds up to 64 kph.” quote from  http://marinebio.org

 

Grizzly Bear “at work”

glengrizsalmon2

After August 25 the grizzly bear watching takes place from viewing stands on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River.  A classic pose after a good catch.  A salmon in the mouth is the reasons the bears come to this part of British Columbia’s coast and also the reason we come.