Tag Archives: Bears

Grizzly Stops “Grizzly Watching”

grizzly bear walks river

The extra day booked at Grizzly Bear Lodge means a trip to Trapper Rick’s to enjoy the scenery of a unique wild river, some more interaction with bears and Trapper Rick and maybe a little river fishing. On this day we were unable to cross the river to find some bears for about an hour because there was a grizzly bear fishing at the boat landing. As the bear approached Rick he had a one sided conversation with the bear and it crossed the river to fish on the other side before it moved up the river. January 19 to 21 has more photos from this incident – can use the side bar at the left to find these photos. All in all it is worth the time to watch grizzlies while waiting to watch grizzlies.

A Grizzly Easier to Spot

grizzly bear and cub watch us

We have been spotted by the mother grizzly and her cub and in turn they are easier to see on the beach. Heads up and looking in our direction make them much more noticeable than in yesterday’s post.

Grizzly Mother and Cub?

grizzly on the beach

From a greater distance and if they are not moving grizzly bears tend to blend in with the rocks on the beach. Both bears seem to have found something worthy of their full attention but that is what happens when mother turns over a rock. This inter-tidal zone “food” is high in protein and is made up of crab, clams, barnacles, amphipods and other tiny invertebrates. The “beach food” is important because plant food is relatively scarce during spring and bears will continue to loose weight until well into June.

Grizzly Bear Behaviour 3 of 3

large male grizzly on the river

.. as large male grizzly comes around the same corner toward the stands. Normally when the large males come to fish the other grizzlies back off the fishing area but on this day they did share even if the mother and cubs did keep a respectful distance.

Grizzly Bear Behaviour 2 of 3

grizzly cubs go fishing

.. her cubs which eventually come into sight. Once the cubs get closer she appears much more cautious and makes sure the cubs stay close. Her speed picks up as she moves into the area near the stands and starts to fish. Soon the reason for her change of attitude appears….

Black Bear Ignore Watchers

watching black bears on the beach

Most bears have the equivalent eyesight as humans; however, like humans, there is quite a bit of variation. Some bears have great vision, and some, especially older bears, may have degraded eyesight. But as a general rule, bears see things in better detail than deer, and about the same as humans.

Part of the poor vision myth comes from the fact that because their noses and hearing are so good that they do not rely as much on their vision. If the wind keeps our scent from the bear we are ignored. What about hearing you say? I have noticed that the bars tend to look up the beach to were normal danger might occur and it appears that they also hear the echo of our motors from that direction and do no look toward the boat. Thus good viewing of black bears.

The “Grizzly Bear Look”

grizzly bear on the beach

This is the look you get from a grizzly bear when the current pushes you within their comfort zone. The happened this past September on the way down Knight Inlet coming back from the day’s grizzly watching tour. We were looking for black bear when one of my guests spotted this grizzly eating kelp on the shore. We turned off the motor and let the tide do the rest and unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your viewpoint) we drifted closer than we should have but in deep water. With tide and wind it is impossible to paddle the larger boat and we did not want to start the motor and scare the bear. We eventually moved past the grizzly which remained on the beach eating.

Second Grizzly Viewing Stand

grizzlies walking river

These three bears are walking up the river to the holding pool were the salmon wait until they move up to and over the weir into the spawning channel. The second stand in on the bank beside the pool which contains the salmon that these bears are coming to catch.

First Grizzly Viewing Stand

stand for watching grizzlies

June 4th mentions the viewing stands we use. There are two stands on a Knight Inlet river. The first is located directly opposite the entrance to the man made spawning channel. If you take the time to go to to “Categories” and select “Wildlife Tour Itinerary” on the left side of this posting you will have an excellent aerial view of our viewing area. The metal weir in this photo is to maintain the water level for the spawning salmon. We normally use the second stand as it has a more natural setting as tomorrow’s post will show….