“It is a keeper” is often the first words out of a fishing guide’s mouth when guests first get the salmon to the boat. In this case the grizzly bear must be thinking the same thought, as bears are selective when deciding which salmon to keep at certain times of the season. The selection is based on “male or female”; the fat rich eggs are a prime concern to speed up the weight gain to ensure a successful hibernation. The tell tail feature for human is that male pink salmon have a rather large and distinctive hump on their back and thus the nick name “humpy”. As Lynn’s photo shows this salmon lacks the hump so it is a female and to the grizzly “it is a keeper”.
Your guide often says, “Black bears are where you find them.” This means although we do a black bear tour on your first evening in the lodge we are constantly looking for black bears. Running up Knight Inlet on a grizzly bear tour, across to Thompson Sound on the extra day in the lodge or out to Johnstone Strait is search of orca and whales we are always watching the shore for bears. This mother and cub were on a whale watching safari and were cooperative enough to stay on the beach for over half an hour. As you can see the cub was in step with mother and followed her example.