Tag Archives: Bears

Guide Photos

black bear crossing
Click to enlarge then click again

Although this photo does not have a date to determine the time of the year it was taken late in the season likely September. Fall bears have a pretty good layer of fat and this means they float much higher in the water. The early season black bears often have only their head out of the water and very little of their back. As I mentioned in yesterdays post the lodge is in an area of many small islands and bears are good swimmers that travel between island.  It seems that they believe in the “grass in greener on another island” philosophy. This same philosophy has brought several grizzly bears to Minstrel Island where our lodge is located. As the population of grizzlies grow in the area of Knight Inlet it has become more common it see grizzlies on the evening black bear tours and while looking for whales and orca.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly caught salmon in mouth
Click to enlarge then click again

This is the classic pose for a grizzly bear. The photo was taken from the viewing stands on the Glendale River in Knight Inlet BC. The late summer grizzly viewing, after August 24th, requires a short van ride (fifteen minutes) from a floating dock in the river estuary to the man made spawning channel. The grizzlies of the Knight Inlet area, which is on the southern edge of the Great Bear Rainforest come to this river to feed on the fall, run of spawning salmon. The day tours from our lodge on Minstrel Island use these viewing stands and often view more than a dozen different grizzly bears in the immediate area of the stands as well as grizzlies on the drive to the stands. If one looks closely in the water in front of the bear there are many salmon on their way to the spawning channel and the main reason the bears pose for this photo.

 

Interesting Guest Photos

grizzly bear claws close up
Click to enlarge then click again

Grizzly bear claws can be used to hold a salmon to share with a cub as shown in the March 29th posting or they can be used to dissect a salmon as shown in toady’s. Janis Worsley from the UK used a long lens to capture this grizzly at work.

 

Interesting Guest Photos

male grizzly peeing
Click to enlarge then click again

One of the most often asked question whether a lone grizzly is a male or female? A male is usually bigger than the female and his head appears to be smaller in comparison to his body.  Females appear to have shorter legs and are a bit squatter in appearance. Luwen and Liwen from Singapore provide the photo showing the tried and true way to tell the males from the females, which is to watch them urinate. The males urinate forward, and the females backward! If you are lucky enough to see or photograph that, then you will know without a doubt whether the bear you are seeing is a male or female grizzly.

 

Interesting Guest Photos

grizzlies beneath viewing stands
Click to enlarge then click again

This photo form one stand toward the other shows an interesting occurrence.  The mother grizzly with two two-year old cubs had passed our viewing platform and walked down the road toward the other stand only to come face to face with another bear walking out of the spawning channel area to the natural river on the other side of the road. What happened? Nothing, the bears passed and went on their way. The abundance of food in the area means that there is little aggression between grizzlies as long each respects the other’s comfort zone. A large male may dominate the viewing area for a while but it just means that the other bears wait until it leaves before coming to feed.

 

Interesting Guest Photos

above a grizzly
Click to enlarge then click again

From August 25th to early October the grizzly bear tour from Grizzly Bear Lodge goes to the Glendale River on Knight Inlet on uses one of two viewing platforms located near a man made salmon spawning channel. The two stands are less than seventy-five meters (yards) apart and each provide excellent opportunities for close up bear viewing. The above photo provided by UK’s Lynn Morris shows a grizzly bear walking beneath the viewing stand. It does show how close the bears come to the stand but not the “grandeur” of the bear….. view of other stand tomorrow

 

Interesting Guest Photos

grizzly with salmon in mouth
Click to enlarge then click again

This photo provided by Lynn Morris is one most guest want to capture. The grizzly with a salmon in it’s mouth the other being a video of a grizzly bear catching the salmon. If you enlarge the photo you will notice many salmon in the water in front of the bear and yesterday’s post shows the abundance of salmon in this section of the river.

 

Interesting Guest Photos

rifer of salmon
Click to enlarge then click again

A great photo by Lynn Morris showing the numbers of salmon in Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. From late August to early October it is these salmon that bring the grizzly bears to our viewing area. This area is about an hour and fifteen minutes by boat from the lodge on Minstrel Island. At this time of the year the grizzly bear tours use a viewing platform which overlooks the entrance to a manmade spawning channel and for the bears this is like “fishing in a barrel”. The spring and early summer viewing occurs along the shore and in the estuary of the Glendale Cove which attracts the bears because of the abundance of high protein sedge grass, the tidal flats and rocky shore with their animal protein.

 

Interesting Guest Photos

 

grizzly following mother
Click to enlarge then click again

After some time in the water the mother grizzly and cub moved up the beach toward the river mouth. One can see that the tide has started to rise and the beach is disappearing and this means that the bears will move up toward the shallower estuary and river mouth. Fortunately once we arrive by boat from the lodge we switch to a large flat bottom skiff which permits us to follow the bears as they move into this shallow area.  This enables good close up pictures from a stable boat, which allows guests to move about without fear of tipping or rocking. Yesterdays posted photo and today’s are just two of the many provide by Marc & Solange

 

Interesting Guest Photos

grizzly teaching cub
Click to enlarge then click again

Mid-August can be quite warm in Knight Inlet’s Glendale Cove where we watch the grizzly bears as they come to the beach in search of food either protein from turning over rocks or the sedge grass that grows in the river estuary. The Cove is a one and a quarter hour boat ride from the lodge along the shore of Knight Inlet. The Glendale River mouth attracts grizzly bears that spend spring and summer feeding in the area and many are mothers with cubs. If you wore a fur coat in the summer you might want to spend some time in the water on a play date with mom. Marc & Solange visiting from France provided this photograph.