Tag Archives: Grizzly Bears

Who Eats This Salmon

Grizzly cubs salmon over fight

The mother caught the salmon now the fight is to determine the eater. This family was just below the viewing platform we use after August 24th. The water is about one meter (three ft.) deep which is ok for the mother but once the cub has the salmon it is necessary to get to shore to eat. So the family fight is to retain the salmon and to make it to the nearest shore about five meters (yards) away. The good news is that there is an abundance of salmon so everyone will get their fill.

 

 

Estuary Grizzly Bears

River Grizzly Bears

Prior to August 25th grizzly bear watching from our lodge occurs in the Glendale River bay and estuary. We travel one hour and fifteen minutes by boat up Knight Inlet to the river. At the river we transfer to a 5.5 meter (yard) flat bottom skiff. The shallow draft of the skiff allows us the move closely along the shore and to go up the river as the tide rises. The grizzlies have accepted our presence allowing us to get close enough for good photos. No this photo was not taken with a “large” zoom lens rather my small Pentax Optio 6 mp 3X Optical Zoom point-and-shoot camera which is waterproof. The waterproof is important because I am in the water pulling the boat up the river. The conclusion to make is that we were close to these grizzly bears.

 

 

Just One More

one more salmon

This past summer there was an abundance of salmon and as the previous post suggests many were allowed to drift down stream to the less fortunate. The other factor in salmon selection by the grizzlies is that they will often discard the male salmon (no eggs) but they still have other fatty parts. Several of the bears around the viewing stands did not waste energy chasing salmon rather they sat on the shore and eat those drifting by or in this case piling up on the bank. In this photo the mother had eaten her full and was heading for a rest while her two-year-old want another.

 

 

Grizzly Bear Eating Style

Grizzly eating salmon

The view from our platform on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River overlooks the entrance to the man made spawning channel.  After August 24th this is the centre for the grizzly bear watching tours. This grizzly eating the salmon headfirst may seem strange. But when salmon is very abundant the skilled grizzly bears that catch lots of salmon will start only eating the fattiest parts of the fish – the brains, eyes, skin and eggs. They then drop the discarded salmon into the water where it is swept downstream to be eaten by smaller or less experienced bears, gulls, ravens, crows, eagles and other scavenging animals. See tomorrow’s post.

 

 

Well fed Grizzly Bear

Large grizzly bear

Unlike the black bear in the May 8th posting this grizzly bear has access to the rivers that contain spawning salmon and flow into Knight Inlet. The overhead view means this bear was near the viewing platform on the Glendale River, which has a man-made spawning channel. This platform is used by Grizzly Bear Lodge after August 24th for its grizzly bear watching trips. This is a large well-feed male grizzly that definitely getting close to it’s hibernation weight.

 

Grizzly Bear Posing

Grizzly Bear beach

This photo presents what seems to be a common pose for grizzly bears on a wildlife tour from our lodge. Fortunately the pose only lasts while the bear is turning over rocks and they do move from rock to rock and the trip allows hours of observing bears so there is ample time for good photos. The reason for this pose is the beaches slope to the water and it is easier to roll rocks downhill than uphill.

 

 

Healthy Grizzly Bear Population

Grizzly Family

The grizzly bear population in the Knight Inlet area is healthy and growing. Grizzlies are frequently having triplets and this year there was a mother with four cubs. It is not unusually for one of the three cubs not to survive into its second year but for the past several years that has not been the norm. The number of grizzly bears in the area has increased so that the juvenile bears are moving down Knight Inlet and are becoming more common close to the Lodge. In the spring mothers with cubs are starting to appear in areas adjacent (ten minute boat ride) to Minstrel Island the location of the Grizzly Bear Lodge. This summer (2014) we had a large sub-adult grizzly on the island that took a week to scare off the island. Grizzlies are nice to visit on a tour but when the bear is in the front or back yard and guests are watching bears from the lodge deck that is taking grizzly watching to a new level. This mother and triplets are in the best location and are being viewed from the platform on the Glendale River, which flows into Knight Inlet.

 

 

Grizzly Bears Doing?

Grizzly Bears in river estuary

The “Doing?” is because we do not know what they were doing. It was mid-September when most of the bears are up the river after the salmon and we had already been up to the viewing stands saw some bears. We had come back to the dock to have lunch and had time so we took the skiff up the Glendale River.  As the tide rose we came across Bella, her two cubs and the four-year-old siblings that are frequently in the area. They were in shallow water and as the tide came in they just stayed there and eventually swam to the far shore. No idea why and we had never seen this behaviour in the past.

 

 

 

 

 

Grizzly with cubs

Grizzly Bear and cubs

Early July and Bella is with last year cubs in the Glendale River estuary. This river is located an hour and fifteen-minute boat ride up Knight Inlet from Grizzly Bear Lodge. Once we arrive at the river we transfer to a 5.5 meter (yard) skiff so we can quietly approach the grizzlies bears in the shallow water. The quiet part is your guide in the water pulling the skiff. Providing we stay within the grizzlies comfort zone there is no problem and the bears ignore our intrusion. The problem tends to be that our guests comfort zone seems to be larger than the grizzlies comfort zone and I am often encouraged to move back.

 

Grizzly Bear Viewing Platform 2 of 2

Nursing grizzly bear

Yes this is the same grizzly from April 21st posting. This time we managed to get her without the triplets but it is still obvious that she is a nursing mother. Sitting where she is in the deeper water just in front of the viewing platform the cubs are on the bank about seven meters (yards) behind her back. At times it seems like she moves into the deeper water for a few minutes of quiet.