Tag Archives: Grizzly Bears

Grizzly bear claws

Grizzly Bear Claws

The grizzly bear claws are incredibly long, thick and powerful. The nails themselves can be 5 to 6 inches long. They use them to do more digging than any other bear species, digging dens, uprooting shrubs, shredding logs and stumps in search of insects and tubers, and turning over rocks on the beach. Also used to catch and hold salmon while they eat. This over head view is of a grizzly as it walks beneath the viewing stands on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River where we spend our viewing time after August 24th.

 

Spring Grizzly Bears Grazing

Spring Grizzly Bear

In the spring the grizzly bears we view on the lodges wilderness tours are primarily grazing or turning over rocks.  They come down to the shores of Knight Inlet to eat the sedge grass, which is very high in protein. This sedge sustains them until the salmon enter the rivers of British Columbia’s coast in mid-August. The morning grizzly bear tour uses 18 to 20 foot boats to travel up Knight Inlet to the Glendale River where we transfer to smaller a boat that allow us to drift along the shore to watch and hear the bears eating. This flat bottom skiff also permits us to follow the grizzly bears up river as the tide rises.

 

 

Grizzly approaching with caution 3 of 3

Grizzly bears waiting

Necessary because the grizzlies already fishing for salmon are a mother with two cubs (look closely at the top right corner of the photo) and another large female. This bear is a four or five year old male and they are always cautious around other grizzlies especially a mother with cubs.

Grizzly approaching with caution 1 of 3

Cautious Grizzly Bear

We are in the first viewing stand looking down the finger of land that links us to the second stand. This grizzly bear came up from the natural river and is crossing the track of road on its way to the pool holding the salmon waiting to enter the man made spawning channel. Its first glance is toward our position which is approximately 25 meters (yards) from the bear…

 

 

 

Grizzly Bear View

big grizzly bear

Watching grizzly bears from the viewing stands on the Glendale River is a little different that from a boat in the river estuary. This is especially true when the bear walks directly below the stand. This downward perspective truly shows the size and bulk of this grizzly. This is a “well fed” bear that is a long way to fatting for hibernation. The photo was taken on September 2nd and means the bear still has two months to add additional layers of fat.

 

 

Trapper Rick’s Boat Pool 3 of 3

grizzly on the river

Part of the reason for crossing the river was to join it’s sister on the far side. In the previous posting the sister was looking across the river at this scene and a freshly caught salmon is always an invitation. This process of grizzly bears moving up and crossing the river took about an hour but the guests did not feel that it was time wasted.

 

 

Trapper Rick’s Boat Pool 2 of 3

grizzly closer

As the grizzly came closer Rick started to talk to the bear and it listened. He has been in the valley for twenty-five years and knows the bears and they know his voice. Rick has great respect for the grizzlies in his valley and they accept his presence. This grizzly turned and crossed the river….

 

 

Spring Grizzly Bears Graze

Grizzly grazing

An important part of a grizzly bear’s diet is high protein sedge grass.  This grass grows in coastal meadows that are flooded with salt water every high tide. Sedge grass stalks are spiky, wide and stiff but the sedge grass is up to 25% protein, and this is the reason why grizzly bears prefer eating it to other grasses.  The spring a grizzly bears diets consist of approximately 70% of sedge grass to replenish their lack of proteins during hibernation. Diets shift with the seasons, as summer approaches the berries start to replace the sedge grass and fall brings the salmon into the Glendale River.

 

 

Spring Grizzly Bears Roll Rocks

Grizzly rolling rocks

Grizzly bears start to appear on the beaches to turnover rocks in late May. 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. Plant foods make up the majority of a bear’s diet (sometimes, as much as 90%) until the salmon arrive in the rivers in late August.