Grizzly Bears, Orcas and more - in a Day?

 

Grizzly Bears (above) and Orcas (aka Killer Whales), the two wildlife stars of Canada's Pacific Northwest, were top of my 'must see' list for a trip to British Columbia this summer. But what was the best way to guarantee sightings of both?  

The Great Bear Rainforest (link here) holds one of the largest populations of Grizzly Bears on Canada's west coast. It is an area of scenic splendour, where the Coast Mountains plunge from high icefields down densely forested slopes to fjord-like inlets that penetrate deep into the mountain massif. There are few settlements and no road access. Getting into this landscape requires either boat or floatplane while accommodation options are limited to a small number of wilderness lodges. None of this comes cheap.

September is the peak season for grizzly sightings when the bears hang around river mouths to feast on the annual salmon run. But the need to stick to UK school holidays meant that we had to travel earlier in the summer. Could we justify the expense of a lodge stay at a time when bears might be harder to find?

A bit of online research provided the answer. Sea Wolf Adventures is a First Nations-led tour company that runs day trips from Port McNeill at the northern end of Vancouver Island over the Johnstone Strait, through the pine and spruce-clad islands of the Broughton Archipelago and right into the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. As well as offering the chance of a Grizzly Bear encounter, these boat tours seek out the area's marine life highlights, of which Orcas top the bill. The chance to score my two top wildlife goals in a single day was too good an opportunity to miss.

Vancouver Island from the Broughton Archipelago

Port McNeill is a small working port with only a few places to stay or eat. Our base here was the Black Bear Resort Hotel (link), a decent motel just up the hill from the village centre, while the Devil's Bath Brewing Company down by the harbour (link) provided excellent pizzas, a good range of craft ales and a generally nice vibe. Both are recommended.

0630 on a Friday morning saw us down at harbour waiting to get checked in the Sea Wolf Adventures office. The sun was shining and the sea was still: it was a lovely morning. A quick waterfront wander produced the startling sight of two Bald Eagles perched on an electricity pylon. Apparently, this is a normal morning occurrence at Port McNeill. Although these birds are common on Canada's west coast, seeing them so close-up was a special moment. Regal is the word.

Bald Eagle - Port McNeil, Vancouver Island BC

Back at the office we discovered the rest of the party donning life jackets and filling travel mugs with coffee. We met our host (Hannah) and driver (Mike), who led us down to the pontoons and onto the boat, where we shamelessly bagged the two front seats. Mike explained later that the Mayumi, named for his daughter, had been custom-built for the company; two huge outboards gave it some serious thrust when he fully opened the throttle, and it covered the miles with ease.

Mayumi at the dock in Port McNeill

After slowly navigating out of the harbour, Mike set a course for the islands of the Broughton Archipelago on the far side of the Johnstone Strait. The islands form a maze of waterways, along which we cruised slowly looking for bears on the shoreline. There were none to be seen, but a Humpback Whale feeding close inshore near a narrow passage called The Blow Hole came as a surprise; the coastal waters are deep here, even very close to the shore. 

Humpback Whale diving close to the shore - Broughton Archipelago

After passing through the Blow Hole, Mike decided to head up to Knight Inlet and we were soon battling up this arrow-straight fjord at some speed into a stiff wind. Things got a bit bumpy. You might think that these land-enclosed waters would be sheltered, but the mountains here seemed to funnel the wind right towards us.  The skies were overcast and gloomy, a stark contrast to the sun that had been shining over the Johnstone Strait. But these mountains attract the clouds - and the rain. This accounts for the forests' rich understorey vegetation, including berry-bearing bushes like Salal much favoured by bears, as well as the abundant epiphytes that have made their home on tree trunks and branches.

Conifer forests on the shores of Knight Inlet, BC

Mike was on the radio and it’s clear (with hindsight) that he’d been a tipped-off about a bear sighting. After some distance, and about two hours into the boat ride, he aimed the boat at a rocky promontory and slowed down the engines: our first Grizzly Bear was foraging down by the water's edge, an adult female with two cubs (but only one cub visible in the image below). She's also the one pictured in the image at the beginning of this blog post.

Grizzly Bear mother and cub - Knight Inlet BC

From a distance, the adult bear looked just like one of the larger rocks on the shoreline, albeit a rock that was moving. But as we moved closer more detail was revealed. Mike took the boat in slowly and suggested that we might like to get out on deck. I didn't need telling twice, and made a bee-line for the forward hatch. I was soon perched above the bow as the boat came closer towards the rocky shore. 

The Grizzly Bear cub on the left has spotted something ...

The cubs were constantly moving about, also searching for food, although they will be fed on their mother’s milk for up to two years. These ones were probably around 6 months old; cubs are born in the den during the winter months. I loved the way that one cub stood up on its hindlegs, giving a sharp stare to the nearby gulls (above). All three bears seemed unfazed by our presence.

We spent about a quarter or an hour bobbing about getting views of this our first bear family, before another boat appeared which was our signal to head off to avoid overcrowding. The bears didn’t even seem to notice our departure. Mike started to retrace our route westwards down Knight Inlet but stopped after about ten minutes and slowly pulled in towards the shore again. This was bear family number two, another female (below), also with two cubs, occupying a separate territory to the first female. Mike said that this (second) female was the daughter of the first one. And she did look a bit younger and less, well, grizzled than the first adult bear. Grizzlies can live a long time, up to their 30s.

The second Grizzly Bear mother - Knight Inlet, BC

Neither adult bear looked exactly big or chunky, probably because spring and summer have provided them with comparatively short rations. Bears survive remarkably well during hibernation, being able to subsist without food or water for six months by relying on fat reserves and recycling their fluids. During the summer they feed on berries and can scavenge carrion as well as hunting birds and small mammals. But for coastal bears such as these the big feast comes in September with the salmon run, their big chance to stock up before hibernating.

Grizzlies are part of the larger Brown Bear Ursus arctos species which also occurs in Europe and Asia (and originally in parts of North Africa). Brown Bears are classed as being of ‘least concern’ in conservation terms, given its (very) large range and a stable population that may now be increasing in some areas. However, the IUCN’s population estimate (110,000 individuals) is massively less than the 200-250,000 previously estimated in McDonald et al (2002) so it’s not all good news, and some of the more isolated populations of Brown Bears are clearly in trouble. This doesn’t seem to be the case for the Great Bear Rainforest, which (as best I can find out) is home to around 6,000 Grizzly Bears out of some 20,000 in Canada. (Please let me know if more detailed figures are available.)

For completeness, here’s a photo (below) of the second Grizzly mother with her two cubs. We spent ten minutes watching them move slowly over the shoreline rocks before Mike backed the boat away and we resumed our return ride down Knight Inlet.

The second Grizzly Bear mother with both cubs - Knight Inlet, BC

We were pleased with these sightings but one more Grizzly Bear encounter remained in store. Back in the labyrinth of channels through the Broughton Archipelago, Mike navigated us to a sheltered cove next to Bowers Island. Some movement at the forest edge revealed the presence of a lone Grizzly (below), almost certainly a male given its hefty bulk, staring out of the gloom. (I'm blaming the distance and low light levels for the poor quality of the image below).

Male Grizzly Bear seen at a distance!

We sat in the boat waiting to see if he would come out any further. The bear stared straight at us and gave what looked like an exploratory sniff before turning on its tail and stalking slowly back into the forest’s shadows. Oh well - you can't have everything.

It was time to move onto the second phase of the day's explorations, so Mike turned the boat towards the Johnstone Strait heading for Blackfish Sound which, as its name might suggest, is a happy hunting ground for Orcas. That colloquial (and biologically inaccurate) term can equally apply to Humpback Whales, which are also present there. First, however, it was lunchtime, and we stopped for half an hour in another rocky bay, where a Wandering Tattler fly-by (below) was another new entry on the holiday bird list. Wandering Tattlers breed in the far north – Alaska and eastern Russia – but winter down both sides of the Pacific as far south as Chile and Australia. Their ‘wandering’ tag is well justified. (ID note: the thin white stripe above the eye separates Wandering Tattler from the two yellowlegs species, while the absence of a white rump in flight rules out the two dowitchers).

Wandering Tattler - Blackfish Sound, BC

Out on Blackfish Sound the number of seabirds was increasing, and amongst the many gulls (mostly Glaucous-winged and Short-billed) were many good numbers of auks, including the bizarrely-billed Rhinoceros Auklet, another new species for me. The photo below shows the weird horn-like extension sticking out of the top of its bill: technically this is part of the rhamphotheca (a new word for me) which is the keratin sheath that covers the bill's central bone. The horn is only present in breeding adults and is shed each year, like the colourful sheath on a breeding Puffin’s bill.

Rhinoceros Auklet - Blackfish Sound, BC

But our attention was quickly diverted from the auks: our first group of Orcas (below) was up ahead.

Orcas - Blackfish Sound, BC

There were four in the group, keeping very close together. Judging by the dorsal fins, they were two older adults and two younger individuals. The Orcas around Vancouver Island have been the subject of intensive scientific study. This reveals that two main types of Orcas can be found in these coastal waters - Residents and Transients. As might be expected, the Residents stay around here all year round, feeding mainly on fish. In contrast, the Transients - which are a bit larger, with slightly different markings - are more mobile, following and hunting marine mammals. Our Orcas here were Residents, and a study of the most recent photo-catalogue (Towers et al, 2020) meant that Mike and Hannah were able to identify the individuals concerned - namely matriline (the name given to these small female-led groups) number A23.

At this point a second group of Orcas came into view (below). This included an individual with a distinct notch in the back of its dorsal fin. The photo-catalogue, which can be downloaded online, identifies it as female A55, who was born in 1987. Orcas can be very long-lived, with females as old as 90 recorded in the wild.

Two of the second group of Orcas.

Female Orca A55, with notched dorsal fin.

We spent almost an hour watching the two groups of Orcas. At first, I didn’t notice that a massive cruise ship had loomed up behind us, heading south. It seemed a grotesque intrusion into such a peaceful and beautiful scene. Mike moved our boat to one side while the Orcas made off in the other direction. The cruise liner bombed past us at speed and disappeared quickly. I could see very few people on the decks or cabin balconies: were any of them aware of the presence of the Orcas?

It was time for us to move on, but we soon picked up an observer that surfaced close to the boat ...

Steller Sea Lion - Blackfish Sound, BC

One of the largest sea lions, Steller Sea Lion is found on both sides of the northern Pacific. Apart from size, and this was clearly a big beast, the key identification feature for Steller is the pale, almost yellow, colour body which contrasts with the dark limbs - seen below giving us a cheeky wave.

Steller Sea Lion waving a flipper.

Steller Sea Lion

And that was almost the end of the show. After a brief detour past the settlement at Alert Bay, where Mike gave us a bit of the history of the First Nations and their battles with authorities to protect their culture and way of life, we made the short crossing back to Port McNeill. 

Sea Otter - Port McNeill, BC

But there was a final wildlife highlight: a single male Sea Otter (above) was having a snack just outside the breakwater of Port McNeill harbour. Further south on the Pacific coast, these engaging animals are easily (and famously) seen in California's Monterey Bay - see my blog post about them here - where they are present in good numbers.

The fortunes of Vancouver Island's Sea Otters haven't been quite as rosy as their Californian cousins. Originally hunted to extinction for fur, the species was reintroduced to the island in the late 1960s with 89 otters brought down from Alaskan waters. Numbers have since grown significantly, with over 3180 counted in 2005 - the most recent data that I can find (Nichol, 2005). The relocation site was on the Pacific Ocean side of the island (the opposite side to Port McNeill), and that is where the bulk of the Vancouver Island population remains. Mike and Hannah told us that only single males have so far made it around to the Port McNeill area. It's heartening to know that their distribution is still spreading, and hopefully some females will turn up in due course.

And that was that. We went back to the office, handed back out life jackets and travel mugs, and said our farewells. It had been an epic day of wildlife watching. What really stood out, apart from the diversity of species, fantastic scenery and sense of being in a wilderness, was the opportunity to spend a time watching charismatic animals doing their thing in a relaxed and hassle-free way – for both them and us. And that, really, is unbeatable. 

Huge thanks to Mike and Hannah of Sea Wolf Adventures!

References:

McDonald, D. ed. (2006) The Encyclopedia of Mammals. Oxford: OUP.

Nichol, L.M. (2007) Recovery potential assessment for sea otters (Enhydra lutris) in Canada. Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Science.

Shirihai, H. and Jarrett, B. (2006) Whales Dolphins and Seals: A Field Guide to the Marine Mammals of the World. London: A&C Black.

Sibley, D. (2003) Field Guide to the Birds of Western North America. London: Christopher Helm. (Indispensable!)

Towers, J., Pilkington, J., Gisborne, B., Wright, B., Ellis, G., Ford, J and Doniol-Valcroze, T. (2020) Photo-identification Catalogue and Status of the Northern Resident Killer Whale Population in 2019. Nanaimo: Fisheries and Oceans Canada.