Tag Archives: Grizzly Bears

That’s a Wrap on the 2024 Season

Just like that our season has come to an end. I would like to thank all of our wonderful guests and staff who made this year a huge success. I am happy to stay that all of our team is planning to return next season. We are actively taking bookings, with dates starting June 1 2025. Hope to see many of you next season.

The wildlife viewing this season was awesome. A couple highlights that come to mind was the shear number of salmon in our local rivers, as well as the abundance of Resident Orca. With salmon returns being so strong this year, we were happy to see bears in excellent condition. By the end of our season most of the bears had packed on a lot of weight and were getting very “picky” about what parts of the salmon they would eat. Hopefully this will translate into more cubs being born this winter. Another positive was the weather conditions. We had enough rain to keep our fire risks low and it made for some excellent wild berries. The bears took full advantage of this, with the berry season extending far past its normal conclusion. This did mean that we had to work hard to find bears during our summer season, (as they were often feeding on the berries deep into the forest), but moving forward it is excellent that they had such an abundant food supply. The Humpbacks also didn’t disappoint, with great numbers and a few new calves returning with their mothers to feed. After a slower year for resident Orca sightings, this season was one of the best that I can remember. In fact as Im writing this the A62 and A23’s are still being spotted in the area by dedicated biologists. Strong numbers of Chinook and Chum salmon are providing them with a steady food source. There are a lot of positive signs and we are hopeful that 2025 will be another great season.

Over the winter and spring we will be doing some repairs and maintenance. We plan on having a new cedar front deck built in time for the 2025 season, as well as new ceilings and paint in parts of the lodge and rooms. Theres always projects on the go.

Felix, Julien, Ryan, Zack and Myself all look forward to welcoming guest in June. See everyone soon.

Angus Reid

Wildlife Babies 2 of 5

mother grizzly and cub

Grizzly bears mate in the spring and their babies are born from January to March so it can live in its den for about four months during the coldest weather. The grizzly bear cubs of Knight Inlet first appear on the shore with their mothers in late May. This meas the cubs are three to four months old and will remain with their mothers or two or three years. Although still nursing this cub copies mother and will start on solid food.

Grizzly Bears on the River 3 of 4

grizzly watches guideSuddenly she stops and looks toward us. The problem is that she is less than 25 meters (yards) from where I am sitting on the bow of the skiff and I had stood up and started to move the skiff backward to give her more room to fish. Wrong move on my part. She froze looking at me so I sat down and she…

Grizzly Bears on the River 2 of 4

grizzly cubs catch salmon…they suddenly turned and ran directly toward us. As the picture shows they did manage to flick a salmon on to the bar and proceeded to fight over it’s possession. One of the two year old cubs came up winner so mother continues to fish…

Grizzly Bears on the River 1 of 4

Grizzly mother and cubsI remember this day well. Prior to August 25 all grizzly bear watching is in the Glendale River estuary. It was a slow day with no bears and I was pulling the skiff up river in low water. If one waits for the water to rise with the tide it is much easier but then the water is too deep for the grizzlies to trying and catch the salmon as they try to move up over the shallow gravel bars. We had just reached an area below a gravel bar when these grizzlies appeared….

Grizzly Bear Lecture

grizzly cub turning rocksJuly and a mother grizzly bear and her cub of the year are on the beach working on a meal of mussels. The mother on scrapping them off a log while the cub was more into turning over rocks. The mother persisted on the log and was eventually join by her cub. Note: the mothers back upper leg has not regrown the fur that was rubbed off during hibernation.

Spring dining for a grizzly bear

grizzly on the beach

Until the salmon arrive in the river in late August the grizzly bears of Knight Inlet find their food on the beach. This bear was scrapping mussels and barnacles from the rocks to obtain the protein necessary to keep it alive. These are eaten “in the shell” and with our motor turned off we can hear the crunching as well as the scrapping of claws. This look was “you are in my comfort zone” so we slowly backed off a few meters.

 

 

Waiting for dinner to be served

Two grizzlies

Once the salmon have arrived and after August 24th (per Government Regulations) we move up the Glendale River to the viewing platform to view grizzlies waiting for salmon. These two grizzlies (look carefully) were very good at catching salmon as one caught and moved off it eat its fish the other waited for a salmon to come within reach.

 

 

Guide Photos

four grizzly cubs
Click to enlarge then click again

Grizzly bear cubs are born in the den in January or Febuary. The cubs will weigh approximately 500 grams ( 1 ½ pound) at birth, and arrive into the world blind, hairless, and toothless. The cubs will grow to weigh 3-4 kg (7-9 lbs.) prior to emerging from the den in spring. This photo was taken in early September so these first year cubs are six or seven months old. As you can see from the photo that this mother grizzly is still nursing. The milk from a grizzly is rich in fat, approximately 30% compared to a cow at 3% so these cubs will weight 27 – 45 kg. (60 to 100 pounds). Also the photo shows the difference in size in the three cubs the one being much larger. This is common and shows which of these cubs has a better chance of survival.

 

Interesting Guest Photos

grizzly behind
Click to enlarge then click again

This grizzly bear had just spent some time rolling in the grass at the backside of the first viewing stand on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. If you take time to look at January 1, 20014 post it shows a section of Google map showing the location of the viewing stand on the rivers spawning channel. This bear has just left from beneath the stand and is strolling down the finger of land that separates the natural river from the holding pool where the salmon wait before entering the spawning area. The grizzly bears in our viewing area have come to tolerate or presence and ignore the click of cameras. As long as there are no flashes or sudden loud noises all in fine. Tim O’Neil of Great Britain provided this photo.