Tag Archives: Grizzly Bears

Britt Maria Christiansen, Brussels – 6

grizzly in the bush
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This is a rare site a grizzly with four cubs and you will need to look hard to find the fourth cub. Grizzly bears can give birth to up to four cubs, although litters of two and three are most common.  The number of cubs that are born depends on how healthy and fat a mother is at the time she enters the den.

“Grizzly bears typically mate between May and early July.  Although grizzlies have a gestation period of only 6-8 weeks, birth doesn’t actually occur until 6 months later in dead of winter.  How is this possible?  Upon conception a fertilized egg begins to divide until it gets about the size of a pinhead and is called a blastocyst.  In some mammals like humans, the blastocyst implants into the uterine wall within a week of conception where it continues to grow until birth. Female bears however have evolved “delayed implantation” whereby the blastocyst does not implant into the uterine wall until late fall, just before a grizzly mother enters her den for the winter.  Within a week of conception (during the spring) the blastocyst enters a state of dormancy.  In late fall the blastocyst will implant into the grizzly mother’s uterus if she is fat and healthy enough to support cubs during the winter hibernation.  If she is under severe stress, and under nourished, the blastocyst will simply be reabsorbed into her body.  The number of cubs in her litter is also determined by how healthy and fat the mother is in the fall.  A really fat and healthy mother may give birth to up to four cubs, whereas a marginally fat mother may only give birth to one or two cubs.” Delayed implantation in grizzly bears from GrizzlyBay.org

Britt Maria Christiansen, Brussels – 5

pick a boo grizzly
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If you read the posting from Jan 1 about the location of the viewing stands when we leave the finger viewing stand we are required to back the SUV past the upper end of the spawning channel. We tend to do this quite slowly to enable some interesting pictures.  This picture is of a first year grizzly bear cub sitting mid-channel waiting for a salmon actually waiting for it’s mother to bring it a salmon as first year cubs do not catch many salmon. This area would provide for many more great photos if it were not for the trees along the bank but these are necessary to provide shade so the water does not become too hot. If the water heats up it tends to hold less oxygen and salmon will suffocate. This happened this August as the temperature rose the water intake from Tom Blown Lake was not regulated correctly and there was insufficient fresh water into the spawning channel and hundreds of salmon died.

Britt Maria Christiansen, Brussels – 3

killer whales
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Excellent picture of two orca (killer whales) on a day whale watching in Johnstone Strait adjacent to Vancouver Island. Any photo showing the white eye patch or the white under belly of an orca is great but to have one photo showing both on two different killer whales is excellent. This female and juvenile orca are members of the resident or fish eating orca that spend their summers in the area near Telegraph Cove.  This whale watching area is fifty minute boat ride from the lodge and contains a variety of marine life from orca, humpback whales, harbour seals, Steller sealions, dolphins, porpoise as well as bald eagles and a variety of ducks and gulls.

Britt Maria Christiansen, Brussels – 2

grizzly carrying salmon
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Grizzly bears that fish in the holding pool next to Grizzly Bear Lodges viewing stands on British Columbia’s Glendale River normally take the salmon to bank to eat because of the deep water in the centre of the pool. If you look closely there is another salmon by its front paw and several more in the water.  Grizzlies fishing further up the channel often wound salmon, which later die and drift into the holding pool making it in ideal fishing area for the bears, which want to conserve energy. Bears are able to reach into the water and pull up salmon with little effort while grizzlies on the other side of the stand actually work for their catch.

Britt Maria Christiansen, Brussels – 1

beautiful grizzly
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This photo of a great pose for a grizzly bear was taken from the viewing stand located on BC west coast (Knight Inlet’s Glendale River).  The viewing stands are an hour and quarter boat ride from Grizzly Bear Lodge on Minstrel Island as well as a fifteen-minute truck ride once you have reached the mouth of the Glendale River. Once in the stands grizzly bears may appear on any side as you are at the end of a finger of land. The natural river is on two sides; the holding pool to the weir, which is the entrance to the spawning channel is the third and the road down the finger to the stands makes the forth side. In this case the bear is coming up the bank from the natural river and crossing the road to the holding pool.

Grizzly Bear eating Sedge grass

spring grizzly
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In the spring quests on the tours from Grizzly Bear Lodge view the bears in the sedge grass.  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.

Rising Tide in Estuary

grizzlies wait for tide
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Spring grizzly bear tours from Grizzly Bear Lodge require a boat ride up Knight Inlet to the area of Glendale River. At low tide the bears come to the shore to roll the rocks in search of protein or to feed on the sedge grass along the shore. As the tide comes in we are able to move up the river estuary into the river channel and observe the bears on the mud flats. In this case it is a mother grizzly with a third year cub still tagging along. Cubs generally stay with their mother for two years, although they will stay for three or four if the sow does not become pregnant in the fall of their second year.

Grizzly Bear and bald eagle

grizzly and eagle
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Two of British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest best fishers, a grizzly bear and a bald eagle.  This photo was taken in the mouth of Knight Inlet’s Glendale River an estuary, which becomes filled with salmon after mid-August.  Once the salmon have arrived the eagles that are normally found along the shore of the Inlet move to the river mouths, as fishing becomes much easier. Eagles are an opportunist feeder and the remains of salmon left by the grizzly bear provide the ideal opportunity for an eagle.

Months old grizzly cub

fist year grizzly cub
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Grizzly bear cubs are born in the den in January or February. Cubs weigh 500 grams (1 lb.) which is less one-tenth as much as human babies and are born blind. Once they have left the womb, the find their way to their mother’s teats where they feed on milk (and grow) until the spring. This photo from early June means the cub is likely less than five months old.  The male Grizzly bear’s hibernation ends in early to mid March, while females emerge in April or early May.  Although this cub may have been out of the den for little more than one month and is still nursing we observed it eating solid foods.

Grizzly mother with triplets

grizzlies on river
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This photo is either a mother Grizzly with triplets or the middle bear (cub) has a very long and twisted body.  Triplets are not uncommon in Grizzly Bear Lodge’s viewing area but they are allot more work for the mother grizzly at this time of the year.  That extra mouth to feed and one more cub to keep track of in an area with many other bears means less time to fish. On this day there were other mothers and cubs in the fishing pool and it took time for this family to join the group and feel comfortable enough to start fishing.