Tag Archives: Grizzly Bears

Grizzly Bear Identification

Grizzly Bear Head

 

This mother of triplets is easy to identify and not because of the triplets as there were several sets of triplets this summer and even one family with four cubs. Hear distinctive feature is the almost bald patch that extends back from her eyes. In this photo she has just taken a break from fishing below the viewing platform. She is followed by one of her cubs (nose by her left leg) and has decided to graze on the grass on the bank (some still in her mouth). It is not uncommon to have a salad break after eating salmon all morning.

 

Knight Inlet Summer Grizzly Bears

Grizzlies Waiting

The time of the grizzly bear watching can be determined by the size of the bears.  The grizzlies of late May and June are much leaner as they are recovering from a period of hibernation and will be adding little fat to their body. Through July and early August they start to show the effect of all the protein from grazing on sedge grass and turning over the beach rocks.  By early August the salmon start to appear in the rivers and this is when most of the “bulk” starts to show. So this is a mid-August photo with the grizzly bears starting to develop a rounded body and curves where there used to be boney angles. This photo in from Knight Inlet’s Glendale River estuary on a rising tide. Grizzly Bear Lodge uses this river basin for all our tours and prior to August 25th the tours are in the river estuary and after the date we use the viewing platform further up the same river.

Viewing Platform 5 of 5

Grizzly bear triplets

These first year grizzly siblings were in the same area as yesterday’s posting just on the edge of the bank beneath the viewing platform but with a much better camera. Most guests coming to the lodge have a camera capable of taking the photo in toady’s posting if not they will exchange emails with other guests. They may be like I am and only use a photo to jog a memory so nearness is not all that important. But the opportunity for that “bucket list” photo does happen at the viewing platform.

 

Viewing Platform 3 of 5

Grizzly bears at stands

The grizzly bears in this photo are approximately 15 meters (yards) from the railing of the viewing platform. The photo was taken with my small Pentax Optio WPi camera without using the zoom. Tomorrow a little zoom.

 

 

Viewing Platform 2 of 5

Spawning salmon

The everyday view from the viewing platform is salmon. These salmon are waiting to enter the spawning channel that is located approximately one hundred meters (yards) to the right of the picture in the previous posting. We drive along the edge of the spawning channel on the way to the platforms and normally see six or eight grizzly bears before we start our bear watching morning. The salmon are the reason you are our guests because without the salmon there would be no photo for tomorrow’s posting.

 

Viewing Platform 1 of 5

Knight Inlet viewing stands

Grizzly Bear Lodge’s grizzly bear tours use a viewing platform located on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. After August 24th we are permitted to drive up a logging road along the river to use the stands and watch bears catching salmon that are waiting to enter the man made spawning channel. The stands are covered and have room to move around. They were designed, by the other lodge that used the stands at a different time, for twelve guest but our lodge is much smaller so we have a maxim of five guests per viewing time. The next four posting will show you what the guests are watching.

 

Grizzly Bear Parasite

Grizzlies with Tape Worms

Not necessarily the most pleasant site but it is a fact of wildlife viewing involving grizzly bears. Two or three time a year grizzlies will appear with tapeworms.  Toward the end of summer and into fall, bears sometimes shed a type of tapeworm, commonly called the broad fish tapeworm. As this photo shows it can sometimes be seen trailing behind them. Grizzly bears can become infected by the tapeworm from eating raw salmon. The physical effect of bears harbouring tapeworm parasites is insignificant to the bear’s health. This will slightly stress the bear, but generally it is not advantageous for the parasite to kill the host, since that would also result in the death of the parasite.

 

Grizzly Family Fishing

Grizzly bear triplets

This mother and her cubs had spent the better part of an hour fishing behind the viewing stands on the Glendale River. After August 25th we are permitted to travel by truck to the viewing stands, which are about a fifteen-minute ride from the dock where we moor our boat. The stands have the natural river on two sides and the entrance to a man-made spawning channel on the third. These bears were catching and eating salmon when they decided to move off into the surrounding area likely to nurse. Even though the cubs were eating salmon they will still nurse. “Grizzly bear cubs will nurse for up to three years. Depending on when a grizzly mother bear wants to wean her cubs, a decision often made when she decides it’s time to mate again, she will keep producing milk for up to three years. However, grizzly cubs begin eating solid food from an early age and can very quickly become not dependent on mama’s milk.” From the Get Bear Smart Society website

 

Grizzly Bear Faceoff? 2 of 2

Grizzlies meet and fight

The clouds moved then the sun came out and the grizzlies decided to play. We were sitting in a 5.5 meter (yard) long skiff in the Glendale River estuary as these two siblings spent more than a half-hour entertaining us. It was late August, a warm day, and a great day to be playing in the water especially if you were wearing a fur coat.