Tag Archives: Black Bears

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.

Evening Black Bear Tour 2 of 2

grizzly bear on black bear tour

On the better evenings we may find a grizzly with cubs. Over the past five years the numbers of the grizzlies in the area near Grizzly Bear Lodge (named for a reason) has increased dramatically. The grizzly population of Knight Inlet is on the increase and the young males and mothers with cubs are moving down the inlet closer to the lodge. The competition for food forces the bears into areas they previously avoided and this makes the evening viewing much more interesting.

Evening Black Bear Tour 1 of 2

black bears and cubs

On your first evening at Grizzly Bear Lodge once rooms have been assigned, you are settled in, had your snack of fresh seafood (prawns or crab), dip, crackers, cheese etc., and Angus has given his welcome talk that outlines you itinerary it is finally time for your first tour. The first tour is a short wildlife viewing trip of an hour plus depending on what we find. The goal is to locate black bears that use the beaches as their buffet. Some nights we are lucky and have a good show often with a mother and cub other evenings it is even better as tomorrow’s post shows….

Nursing Black Bear on BC Coast

nursing Black Bear in BC

Not hard to tell that this mother has a cub that needs to be nursed. We watched this mother and her cub eating berries at the top of the beach for about a half-hour, on one of the whale watching trips, before the cub moved into the bush and the mother on to the beach. The cub likely wanted to nurse but the mother was after more food while the tide was still low enough for her to turn over rocks.

Grizzly bridge over river to salmon?

Grizzly bear walkway across river

Yes this is the same mother grizzly bear from yesterday’s post. Most first year cubs prefer to stay dry so would rather walk a log than swim the river. But they are sitting down looking into the river and this is their favourite perch when their mother is fishing. As soon as she catches a salmon they leave the perch and go to mother for their share but some times (see yesterdays post) they are too late.

Evening black bear tour from Grizzly Bear Lodge

Grizzly Bear on black bear tour

Yesterday’s post was a black bear on a whale watching tour while today’s is a grizzly bear on an evening black bear tour. On your first evening in the lodge we go for an hour or so boat ride looking for black bears and other wildlife. I remember this trip as it was the longest evening black bear tour that lasted two and half hours (we did get back before dark but just). We found a mother grizzly and two cubs on the beach and we followed them for over an hour as they slowly made their way along the beach turning over rocks and at time stopping to berries and eat grass above the high tide mark. Our tours do not normally have a tight schedule if we find something interesting we watch.

Black bear on the beach without cub

Black bear nursing mother

This black bear mother was spotted on the way to our day’s whale watching tour. It is a good area to find black bears especially if there is a low tide in the morning. This nursing mother (look closely at the photo) was on the beach alone that means she must have left her cub sleeping in the bush the above high water mark. We know she has one cub because we had seen them in this area on the previous day.

 

 

 

Black Bear mother and cub

Black Bear Cubblack bear

Although all species of bears, including black and grizzly bears, are technically of the order Carnivora, they are essentially omnivores that eat plants, insects, fish, and animals. On this day we watched this mother and cub for more than thirty minutes as they moved along the beach turning over rocks in search of food that is high in protein and is made up of crab, clams, barnacles, amphipods and other tiny invertebrates. These two also ate some seaweed and finished off their search in a patch of salal berries. It was a learning time for the cub as it followed mother and copied her every action.

 

 

 

Transient Orca 1 of 2

Killer Whales

 

 

“Transient Orca are meat eaters and are frequently seen preying on seal, sea lions, dolphins, porpoises and even larger whales. Transient Orca seem to come and go. As their name implies, they are transient whales and just pass through. It is unclear as to their actual territory, if they even have one. These whales have been seen coming into the inside Strait of Georgia from the top end of Vancouver Island by Cape Scott and leaving at the bottom end by Victoria. Perhaps they circumnavigate Vancouver Island as well as meander back up or down our inside passages. They are routinely seen in the inside waters of BC.” Quote from: Whales and Dolphins BC / Wild Ocean Whale Society (WOWs)  a great site to visit to learn more about marine life on the Bc coast. More tomorrow…