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.

Stellar sea lion at rest

Stellar sealions

Bob and Helen Everson captured a quite moment in the stellar sea lion rookery.  A few sea lions are in our viewing area all year however the prime time is spring and fall. The stellar sea lions that migrate between California and Alaska use the waters off the East Coast of Vancouver Island as feeding and resting area on their migratory route. The rookery is normally a hub of noise and activity as sea lions fight for prime real estate in the rookery and the juveniles thrash about in the water. Although there may be an absence of noise I can assure you the same is not for the smell.

 

Grizzly Mother with catch

grizzly fishing

This grizzly bear uses the same method as the cub from yesterday’s posting. She sits in a deep (1 to 2 meters – 3 to 6 feet) area of the river and picks up the dead salmon off the bottom. She does not even bother to look into the water but rather reaches down and pulls up salmon until she has one that meets her criterion of eatable. The calorie value of salmon does not change if it is several days old but the amount of calories burned to catch the salmon makes a difference. The grizzly bears of central British Columbia do not have this source of food to fatten for the winter so “waste not want not” seems a good policy.

 

Grizzly Cub with Catch

Grizzly cub and salmon

Although Bob and Helen’s photo shows the grizzly cub with a salmon it is important to read the posting from December 7th to remember that the cub did not really catch the salmon but rather picked it up from the bottom. It does not matter the source of the food as long as it provides the necessary calories to fatten for hibernation. The grizzly bears of Knight Inlet start to hibernate in late November or early December depending on the winter and the important part is the amount of fat and not the source. Tomorrow’s post shows mom’s method of catching salmon.

 

Breaching Humpback Whale 2 of 2

Breaching Humpback Whale

It is very difficult to get one great picture of a breaching whale but to get two on the same trip is a testimony to the ability of the photographer and the number of breaching whales. It was one of those days with many breaches but most of them while in range to see the breach and splash not always in range for a good picture. Whale watching safaris from Grizzly Bear Lodge normally encounter orca, humpback whales, dolphins, porpoise, sealion, seals, eagles and a variety of marine ducks.

 

Breaching Humpback Whale 1 of 2

Humpback Breaching

The first of two great photos of breaching humpback whales provided by
Canada’s Bob and Helen Everson. The numbers of humpback whales that stay in our viewing area is increasing every summer. Five years ago there might be four or five whales that stay in the area all summer and now that number has increased to between fifteen and twenty whales. The area being off the East Coast of Vancouver Island near Telegraph Cove which is two-thirds of the way up the island, going north. Second photo tomorrow.

 

Grizzly Bear Triplets

Grizzly Bear triplets

 

Comparing this photo with the posting of December 5th it is obvious that they are the same bears but the background is different. In the background of this photo are more than a dozen dead salmon. This summer was an extremely dry with no rain for several months. The lack of rain meant that the Glendale River was lower than normal and Tom Brown lake that feeds the river was much warmer than normal the result was a very low oxygen level in the water and many dead salmon. The dead salmon count was several thousand but many of the late arriving salmon stayed in the bay at the mouth of the river so when the rains came in October so did more salmon.

 

Black Bears on Tour

Black Bear Knight Inlet

 

 

BB cubsI recall these black bears because for most of the season it was hard to get photos of black bears.  All our guests had good photos of grizzly bears but photos of black bears were much harder to obtain. These three bears, mother and two cubs, were on a rock face on the shore of Knight Inlet on the return trip from watching grizzlies all morning. They were on the shore scraping muscles off the rocks and we followed them along the shore for the better part of half an hour as they moved in and out of the bush as they worked their way down the shore for better patches of muscles to eat. Paul and Sheila took the larger photo while the smaller one was from my camera to show there were three bears.

Grizzly Bears Cubs

Grizzly Bear Cubs

If the number of multiple births in a grizzly bear population is an indication of the health of it’s population then the bears of Knight Inlet are healthy. Twins are common, triplets frequent and even the occasional quadruplets can be seen the viewing area of Grizzly Bear Lodge. This photo from Paul and Sheila Williams from the UK was taken from the viewing stands on the Glendale River. The stands are used by the Lodge after August 24 and through to mid-October.

 

Sun Rise Over Knight Inlet

Sun Rise over Knight Inlet

Grizzly Bear Lodge is located on Minstrel Island approximately 25 kilometers from the mouth of Knight Inlet on the West Coast of British Columbia between the BC Coast and Vancouver Island. This is important because the location has its own microclimate, which involves a cloud cover, which moves in most evenings and burns off by noon the next day. This all makes the sunrise shown in this photo by Craig and Pat Brown from USA rather rare.

 

More Grizzly Bears make Interesting Pictures

Grizzlies play fighting

Play fighting between grizzly bears is a daily occurrence. The first and second year cubs are trying to assert their dominance and cubs will fight with their mother to improve their skills and strength. This behaviour makes for great photos and interesting viewing. The fighting will turn to feeding in seconds nut once the stomachs are full it becomes necessary for the cubs to burn off calories not realizing they should be saving them for hibernation.