Once the grizzly bears we view on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River have caught their salmon they eat but where is the question? This on has decided that sitting in shallow water and using four feet is a good idea others prefer to find a rock to use as a table. Some retreat to the shore for fear of the salmon escaping and a few move into the surrounding bush. When the bears are done with the carcasses they break down and feed the plant life of the forest. The trees in the forest close to the rivers have been found to carry salmon DNA. This only makes sense the trees are going to use whatever is available to grow and what could be better than healthy salmon carcasses? From this scientists have been able to take core samples from these trees to determine what years have had good salmon runs thereby creating a record for rivers and determining the historic levels of salmon is various coastal rivers of BC.
Guide Photos

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.
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