Tag Archives: Black Bears

Black bear on a grizzly tour

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The day tour up Knight Inlet from Grizzly Bear Lodge is about an hour run to the Glendale River estuary an area frequented by grizzly bears. On this run it is common to see black bears coming to the shore eat the barnacles and muscles exposed by the low tide. Some of these bears are patient or maybe to interested in food and ignore our boat stopping for pictures other disappear as soon as we slow down.  The younger bears tend to run the older bears have accepted the intrusion and realize there is no danger.

Wildlife Viewing – Black Bears

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Grizzly bear and in this case black bear cubs stay pretty close to mum especially when they are new born or first year cubs.  They are not quite in step but never far behind. The first photo was taken on one of the “first evening in camp” trips that is normally a guests first boat trip of their stay. A good low tide and the bears come out to play / eat.  The second photo is from the morning grizzly bear tour up Knight Inlet all safari trips whether for grizzlies or whales often involve black bears in this case a mother and three cubs.

 

Grizzly Bears??

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Again photos from Grant and Judith Fuller of Bangor NSW Australia.  No these are not grizzly bears even if one appears to have a brown tinge to its fur, just two good-sized black bears.  Whether on a whale safari or a grizzly bear tour we are constantly looking for black bears and other wildlife while we scan the shore from the boat.  On your first evening in the lodge we do a black bear tour for about and hour and a half if the tide is low enough.  Low tide is required, as it is hard to find bears on the beach if there is no beach.

 

Bears of Knight Inlet

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Every tour from the lodge involves wildlife viewing in this case a rather large black bear.  This viewing was on a morning grizzly bear trip up Knight Inlet.  We leave the lodge about eight o’clock and it takes a little over an hour to reach the grizzly watching area but along the way we frequently see black bears.  This one enjoying breakfast on the beach, turning over rocks, eating barnacles or muscles, small crabs or anything that moves, as well as seaweed.  This is a good-sized bear and notice the white patch on the chest it is common.  “OK so we can’t all be grizzlies!”  was Harold Bailey’s comment for the photo he provided from his UK was the first week of September. 

Black Bear while Whale Watching

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Wildlife viewing is where you find it and many of the black bears we find are on whale watching trips. This black bear has done a good job of putting on weight over the summer. He is in good shape for the coming winter. This one was not going swimming rather was concentrating on getting more muscles and barnacles from the rocks before the tide rose.

 

Black Bear IN BC waters

Good view of a black bear swimming between the many island in our area. Between Vancouver Island and the lodge on Minstrel Island there are hundreds of islands of various sizes. During the viewing season I normally see four or five in the water. This is a picture from the spring because the back is very low in the water. In the fall much more of the back would be above water because of the high fat content of the bear’s body.

 

 

Not a Grizzly (Click photo to enlarge)

The grizzly bears of British Columbia, including the Knight Inlet area, are not normally referred to as brown bears. That reference tends to be for the bears in Alaska. The bear in this photo is not a grizzly bear even though it is brown. It is a “Brown” Black Bear, notice no hump. This bear appears along the shore of Knight Inlet on a rare occasion.