Tag Archives: grizzly

Early Spring Grizzly Cub

spring grizzly cub
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Our first grizzly bear tours in late May and early June grizzlies are often viewed along the shore before we arrive at Glendale River estuary the normal viewing area. The cubs that are born in the den in January or February are too young to be taken to the estuary where there may be mature male grizzlies. These small bays are referred to as nurseries and it gives the cubs time to grow on mother’s milk, which is more than 30% fat. They also become accustomed to the presence of boats and learn to ignore us from their mothers.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly shaking water head
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The advantages of being a guide for Grizzly Bear Lodge are many; good food, guest on holidays enjoying themselves, the common interest in wildlife, great conversations around the dinner table and the list goes on… But the one shown by this photo is that if you take enough pictures during the season you will capture some unique images.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly tasting salmon
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In the May 27th posting I mentioned that grizzly bears would fish beside the stand. The deck of the viewing platform is just over three meters (ten feet) above the ground and this bear was down the bank about two meters (six feet) and out from the bank about four meters (12 feet). I did the math allowing for the fact that the stand is not at the edge of the bank and the bear is approximately eight meters (25 feet) from the where the guest stand to watch the bears. To tell the truth none of the guests take time to comment on the closeness of the bears when their photos allow them to count the number of claws and their size.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly sleeping
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A picture from the grizzly bear viewing stands used by Grizzly Bear Lodge. These stands are located on the Glendale River that empties into Knight Inlet BC about 40 km (26miles) from our lodge. Is this bear dead? No just taking advantage of the cool sand in the shade along the river. Shows how concerned and fearful the grizzlies are of the activity in and around the viewing platform.  The bears have walked beneath the stands, will fish for salmon in the pool beside the viewing platform and even take a nap in the close by shade.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly family meeting
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A mother grizzly and her two cubs visit the viewing stands used by the lodge after August 24th.  The grizzly bears come to the area in the fall because of the abundance of spawning salmon in the river. This abundance allows the bears to feed and gain sufficient weight (140 to 180 kg, 300 to 400 lbs) to last through hibernation. The spring viewing occurs in the river estuary of Knight Inlet’s Glendale Cove where the bears feed on the sedge grass and protein found along the shore. This mother and two-year-old cubs spent the summer along the shore and have recently moved up the river to bulk up for the winter.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly siting in pool
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The ending well is who has the right to fish in a certain part of the river and once that was determined food became the main concern. From first seeing the grizzly bear cubs on the beach in the spring to watching them grow over the years the dominance fight is a common theme. And the common source of the fighting is who gets the first salmon from the mother to who has fishing right on the river.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly siblings fight
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If you check the white shoulder patch on the bear in this photo with the bears in yesterdays posting you will notice that these are the same bears. It was an interesting morning on the viewing platform with these two bears constantly play-fighting which sometime seemed to goes a little beyond the “play” part. But all is well that ends well…. more tomorrow.

 

Guide Photos

more grizzly bears fight
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The fall grizzly bear viewing starts after August 24th up the Glendale River. The viewing platform used by Grizzly Bear Lodge is located on a finger of land that has the natural river on one side and the holding pool or entrance to the spawning channel on the other side. This photo taken on the natural side of the river shows to sub-adult or juvenile bears have a disagreement…. more tomorrow.

 

Interesting Guest Photos

grizzly triplets third year
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A mother brings her second year cubs to the edge of the river by the viewing stands while another grizzly bears stands in the background. They all have the same concern and that is a larger male grizzly further down river. Fortunately at this time the larger male did not proceed up river which gave the others a chance to come and feed on the many salmon. Most guests want to see the big male grizzlies and they are a magnificent sight but they tend to keep other bears out of the viewing area.

 

 

Interesting Guest Photos

grizzlies sharing catch
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These photos provided by James and Wendy Kastelein of Australia were taken from the viewing stands on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. In the fall, after August 24th our grizzly bear watching takes place from stands overlooking the entrance area to Department of Fisheries spawning channel. The channel was built to improve the run of Pink salmon or humpback salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha). The males develop a pronounced humped back, hence their nickname “humpies”. It is the number of salmon that return to spawn every year that attracts the grizzlies to the area and as the photos show not always to eat. Once the sub-adult siblings have caught and eaten enough fish for the morning it often becomes playtime which can be more interesting than watching them fish.

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Click to enlarge then click again