Grizzly bear eating salmon
Tag Archives: grizzly
Grizzly Bears sharing
This photo by Lynn Morris shows two grizzly bears, each eating salmon, and not being concerned with the closeness of the other bear. The abundance of pink salmon means that there are few disputes over fishing rights and those are settled without bloodshed. It is estimated that there are close to fifty grizzly bears in the Glendale River valley during the peak of the pink salmon run in September. The number of salmon means that all are able to obtain enough food without risking injury by fighting. A dispute normally means that one bear will just move up of down river to another fishing area and still be able to catch enough salmon to satisfy it’s hunger.
It is a keeper
“It is a keeper” is often the first words out of a fishing guide’s mouth when guests first get the salmon to the boat. In this case the grizzly bear must be thinking the same thought, as bears are selective when deciding which salmon to keep at certain times of the season. The selection is based on “male or female”; the fat rich eggs are a prime concern to speed up the weight gain to ensure a successful hibernation. The tell tail feature for human is that male pink salmon have a rather large and distinctive hump on their back and thus the nick name “humpy”. As Lynn’s photo shows this salmon lacks the hump so it is a female and to the grizzly “it is a keeper”.
Grizzly family visit
Grizzly Bear Lodge’s tour time on the Glendale River viewing stand starts on august 25th each year. The time slot is from ten until noon this means we need to be leaving the lodge before eight to arrive at the river estuary float to give us time to transfer to shore for the fifteen minute van ride to the viewing stands. There are two wildlife viewing stands at the entrance to the man-made spawning channel and these stands are both located where the brown bears pass close by to come and catch the pink salmon. This photo taken by UK’s Lynn Morris from the second stand gives you a good idea of how close the grizzly may come to the stands when they are directly below the photo shows a rather large back as the bears tend to ignore the stands and do not normally look up.
Grizzly bears fishing?
This could be mistaken for a “fight” or disagreement over the right to fish on a certain part of Knight Inlet’s Glendale River but actually it is a mother grizzly bear disciplining her second year cubs. Even sitting down you can see she has a definite weight advantage and check the size of the stomachs. This mid-October photo shows that these bears are in good shape for hibernation. The grizzly or brown bears of BC we view on our wildlife safari trips do well in hibernation because of the abundance of salmon.
Grizzly Bear Claws
A great photo by Glen, one of the guides, of a large male’s grizzly on the Glendale River. In spite of the black colouring it is a grizzly if you have looked at other photos post in the blog or the many on the website you will see that the bears in our grizzly bear viewing area range from one that is so blonde (cream) it is almost white to every shade of brown to almost black. The coats can be a relatively uniform colour or have markings of various shades of colours. In this case the claws are a give away they are much longer that a black bear claws. Click photo then click again to enlarge.
Defending fishing rights
A great action photo of one grizzly asserting its fishing rights. Almost looks like a lecture but I think it has gone a little beyond a discussion. The disagreements on the Glendale River, which is Grizzly Bear Lodge’s viewing area, tend to be settled with a few roars and mock charges and then all is well and life continues. The compatibility of the bears is due to the common reason for being on the river; that is food in the form of salmon to provide the fat to survive the winter. In the end survival always wins.
Grizzly and cubs
A well-fed family. This photo of a mother grizzly bear and two-year-old cubs was taken in October near the end of the salmon run in Knight Inlets’ Glendale River. These grizzly have had all season to put on their winter layer of fat to make sure they would be able to survive hibernation. The spring tours from the lodge would find these bears on the beach turning over rocks for protein as well as eating sedge grass. In the summer they still appear on the beach at low tides but substitute berries for the sedge grass. And of course in by late August they are on the river enjoying the abundance of pink salmon returning to spawn in the Glendale River. The tour schedule from Grizzly Bear Lodge follows the bears as they change their feeding habits viewing first from the water in the estuary to the viewing stands at the spawning channel.
Hungry Grizzly Bear
This is a photo from early October. The salmon the bear has are not the silver of fresh august salmon more than likely they have been picked off the bottom of one of the deeper pools at the entrance to the salmon spawning area. In this case the bear has two, the one being eaten and a stand by in its arms. No need to waste time when the main goal is to put on that last few pounds of fat before all the salmon are flushed out of the river by the fall rains and hibernation is approaching.
Grizzly always checking over shoulder
