The Bear Necessities

Probably the greatest highlight of my Canadian adventure was the chance to watch bears in their natural habitat. I apologise in advance for the quality of the photos and video clips in the following post, but bear in mind (pun intended!) that I only have a hand-held Canon compact "point-n-shoot" camera with 5x optical zoom and built-in video recorder...not exactly top of the range wildlife photography equipment!

Early in the trip, we spent four days on Vancouver Island, including two at the west coast resort of Ucluelet (named after the Nuu-Chah-Nulth word meaning "safe harbour"). The area is part of Clayoquot Sound, a vast temperate rainforest region of extensive beaches and deep fjord inlets.

Here, we had the chance to go coastal bear watching in a zodiac vessel, much like this one...

All kitted out in our comfy, coverall flotation suits, we set off at exhilarating speed, only to pause shortly afterwards to observe basking seals and then bald headed eagles. Our guide sped us out towards the fjord inlets, gradually slowing the vessel and eventually switching down the engine and rowing us closer to the shoreline.

We drifted slowly and silently along, all eyes trained on the beach...watching, waiting and hoping to glimpse the black bears, known to emerge from the rainforests and onto the beaches to forage for food. Our patience soon paid off! We spotted a large black bear busily beachcombing....

Ursus americanus

Within a few minutes, another black bear came into view from the other side of the beach, this one with her two cubs in tow. Mommy Bear set about showing her cubs how to forage, casually turning over huge rocks with one swoop of her great paw, looking for crabs, clams and barnacles. The kids were fast learners...

Suddenly, the two adult bears became aware of each other and with a few sharp grunts, Mommy Bear sent her cubs up a nearby tree for safety. That's when we noticed two more cubs up a neighbouring tree....obviously the offspring of the first bear! So we now had two sets of twin cubs up trees and two sows having a bit of a stand-off on the beach, and the drama unfolding before our "bear" eyes (OK, enough of the corny puns!).

Eventually, satisfied that there was no imminent danger, Mommy Bear #2 called her cubs back down and retreated into the forest, leaving the first bear on the scene to finish up her seafood platter in peace. We returned to Tofino harbour, thrilled to have seen black bears in such close proximity.

Now we were eager to spot Grizzlies....and we didn't have to wait too long. A couple of days later, we were lucky enough to see a Mommy Grizzly with her two cubs, happily eating the grass and flowers on the side of the road running through Tweedsmuir Provincial Park...

 

We spotted two more black bears in Tweedsmuir, and caught glimpses of another couple on the way to Jasper National Park.

And this one in the Town of Jasper....

Jasper the Bear - the Town of Jasper's mascot, created by James Simpkins for Macleans Magazine in 1948

And finally, we were treated to some bear, or rather bare spotting of a whole different type on Vancouver's Sunset Beach, on our very first day of the trip....

Nude cyclists in the World Naked Bike Ride - a protest against oil dependency