Grizzly in BC

[RockyMountainMommy]

[font color=\'#000000\'](Edited to add this first paragraph-)

I live in the Rocky Mountains, and it's probably best to start by asking you some questions. They are NOT intended to sound condenscending or rude. They are intended to find out what your experience is. I've heard of Grizzlies attacking someone over something as "innocent" as lipstick or underarm deodorant. They don't just go after food. They are highly protective of their food sources, and extremely unpredictable. My questions are being asked because if you are NOT experienced, then you need to think very seriously about something like this, and be very prepared, and very well educated about the behaviour of these animals. The last thing you'd want is to come here, and go home with serious injuries, or maybe not go home at all. Even those who are experienced can be attacked. "Playing dead" won't help you with a Grizzly. Their non-retractable claws will rip you to shreds if they decide to roll you over, and that is pretty typical behaviour for a Grizzly. Climbing a tree is almost pointless. They can usually shake you down or climb after you. You can't outrun one. They can sprint faster than a horse. That's the reality.

A few weeks ago, a forestry officer was attacked by a Grizzly near here. This is an experienced person who knows and understands these bears. He did NOT provoke him in any way. He's lucky he had a tranq gun with him and that he was expecting the bear. Otherwise, he may have been dead.... and this is someone that you'd consider an "expert" in dealing with Grizzlies.

Anyway.... on to the questions. Once again, they are NOT intended to be confrontational or sound condenscending in any way.

(End of edit)

Have you ever photographed bears in the wild before? Have you spent time around Grizzlies? Do you know much about them? Do you have a lot of experience photographing wild, unpredictable, and dangerous animals? If so, where and what animals? If not, how are you planning to educate yourself? Do you plan to go with a guide?

I live in western Canada, in the Rocky Mountains, and I have been fortunate enough to photograph a mother Grizzly with two cubs in the wild. ONCE. Unless you are very experienced with this, I do NOT recommend it.

Go to the Calgary Zoo instead. There are some beautiful Grizzlies there, in a gorgeous, natural enclosure. It is a lot safer.[/font]

[RockyMountainMommy]

[font color=\'#000000\']The previous poster brought up some valid point, still there's no need to be condescending about it.[/font]

[font color=\'#000000\']I in no way meant to be condenscending. I am a journalist, and I hear far too many stories of people coming into these mountains with hopes of "seeing a bear", and ending up dead or maimed.

I DID intend to be blunt and to the point.

If the person who posted this has no experience with this type of bear and intends to go photograph them during their pre-hibernation gorging, they are taking their lives in their hands if they don't know, and respect, just how serious it can be. I'll never, ever apologize for being blunt about something like that.[/font]

[howard smith]

[font color=\'#000000\']Another alternative to a zoo is a place like Brooks Falls.  The bears are wild but very accustomed to seeing people where people ought to be.  I have seen many wild brown bears and they are hard to photograph because they keep their distance (if you are lucky).  I ave seen several too close for my own comfort but I was where they wanted to be.  Luckily, they moved on.

Hunting bears in the wild armed with a camera is dangerous.  I have seen paw prints next to my tent wider than my hand span.  This thing could love you to death.  Bears are alone n the wild because they want to be.

I saw a clip on Kodiak Island on the food channel featring Hank, who visits this sight.  There were several bears shown up close but they were fishing, the people were leaving them alone, and all went well.  I would contack Hank at this site if I really wanted to see brown bears in the wild.[/font]

[RockyMountainMommy]

[font color=\'#000000\']Obviously there is no comparison between a bear in the zoo and one in the wild. But if I, a Canadian, were to ask an Australian, "Hey, I want to come photograph crocodiles feeding in the wild, what's the best time, and where should I go?" they'd likely say I was crazy to even think about that. Grizzlies are no different. I don't know how many Grizzlies you have down in the States, but it's far less than we have here. As I said before, photographing them during spawning season, when they are preparing to hibernate, is unbelievably dangerous unless you know what you're doing, and even then, it's a risk. Unless you are experienced, and have a good, long lens, it's a risk no one should take. It's just not worth it.

Just over a week ago, two men were attacked up north by a Grizzly. This happens here all the time, and it's *most often* those who don't know a whole lot about the bears that get attacked. My point is, the risk is high, and it would be negligent of me not to point out those risks, and offer a *safe* alternative, IF in fact the poster has no experience with Grizzlies.[/font]

[scubastu]

[font color=\'#000000\']BC has some amazing wildlife, though I've never been there before, Knight's Inlet Lodge apparently offers great bear viewing and photography.  http://www.knightinlet.com/

No need to worry about going into the bush on your own in this case...

Stu[/font]

[RockyMountainMommy]

[font color=\'#000000\']Ph, hope you don't think I thought, or was suggesting, you were stupid. I'm glad to hear you're thinking about a tour, or a guide. Good luck with your trip once you book it! I hope you get some amazing shots.[/font]

[howard smith]

[font color=\'#000000\']ph, I am familiar with the bear viewing platforms mentioned in the Knight's website.  I saw them on Admiralty Island in Alaska.  They are very good.  They keep you and the bears apart, and the bears are used to seeing people who don't bother or threaten them in the platforms.  The one I was in would have been almost impossible for a grizzlie to reach.  You may need a long lense.  I didn't have one so I just watched.  That alone was worth the trip.  No guide, but once there, very safe.  (I have heard the platforms have been takenb down.)

There are relatively safe ways to see bears outside zoos.  I think you are on the right track.  Good luck.  And I would be interested in your experience.  Knight's sounds like a place I would like to go.  I like to salmon fish, and Ilike to eat them almost as much as the bears and eagles do.[/font]

[howard smith]

[font color=\'#000000\']Mike, I appreciated your comments.  I too am much more fearful of black bears in the lower 48 thans browns up north.  If you realize you are the intruder on the bears ground, and that bears are merely attempting to survive, and that there is nothing "wrong" for a bear to eat you, or kill you to keep you from their stinking dead elk, then you may have few problems.  Don't invite problems and bears will generally leave you alone.  In fact, you may have trouble seeing bears in the wild.

There is an old saying that if a pine needle falls in the forest, an eagle will see it, a deer will hear it, and a bear will smell it.  Food seems to be the biggest problem humans with bears.  The bears want yours and you appear to be wanting theirs.  Generally, you will not be considered food for a bear.  But a brown bear may not know you are only taking a photograph and not out to stake a claim to his salman or piece of the river.  A sow with cubs is just plain dangerous.

Now that the National Park Service has started transporting bears from the human public areas in Yellowstone, bison have become the most dangerous animal to people in that area.[/font]

[matt4626]

[font color=\'#000000\']I would vote for Brooks Falls too. I spent three day there this July and the mile walk through the forest from the camp to the viewing platform was exciting enough for me.
Until you see a full grown male chasing (and catching) a smaller bear you really can't apprciate how fast they are.
Great place and we came home with terrfic photos.[/font]

[ph74]

[font color=\'#000000\']Thanks a lot for all your answers[/font]

[ph74]

[font color=\'#000000\']I would like to photography grizzly bears in northern BC when pacific salmons arrive on their spawning grounds to lay their eggs.
What period is the best? Early September, late September or early October
Where is the best location?
Thanks
Ph
Annecy, France[/font]

[guy]

[font color=\'#000000\']The previous poster brought up some valid point, still there's no need to be condescending about it. You absolutely should learn as much as you can about bears and how to conduct yourself around them.

A guide is a good idea if this is a new experience for you. Still even guides are not always the most knowledgeable (one dimwit was attacked by a sow with cubs in Grand Teton last week - he went in knowing she was in the area but decided the chance to slaughter some poor elk was worth more than his life). Take some time, read every book you can find on grizzlies (and note they are very different from black bears in many ways).

As for the zoo - only go there if you want to photograph a caricature of what humans believe a bear should be. I personally would never set foot in one.

I have been hiking and backpacking in bear country (both black and grizzly) for some years and have seen them in their element a number of times (two grizzly encounters, numerous black bear).

This is hardly the place to teach outdoor skills or bear behavior, but two things should always be in the back of your mind: first - it's THEIR territory, not yours. You are the outsider and must consider and respect their habits. Second - make sure to keep your food safe and never ever feed or bait a bear. If a bear learns to associate human presence with food, that bear is dead.

Do your research, learn the ropes, treat the bears with respect and you should be OK. Of course there's no guarantees - bear attacks do happen so know the risk and make sure you are willing to accept it.

Guy[/font]

[RockyMountainMommy]

[font color=\'#000000\']As for the zoo - only go there if you want to photograph a caricature of what humans believe a bear should be. I personally would never set foot in one[/font]

[font color=\'#000000\']I have to ask two questions here, guy. First, have you ever been in the Calgary Zoo? Have you seen the enclosures there? It's an award winning zoo, and considered to be the third best in North America, having won countless awards for its natural habitats. The North American section was rated the best on the continent. Yes, perhaps the animals are a shadow of what they would be in the wild, but for someone inexperienced, they are a far safer bet. For someone to come overseas in the hopes of photographing an animal they may never have seen in the wild before (which was the point of my questions), it's naive to think you can just go out into the wild and either find, or photograph bears, safely. If the poster really, REALLY wants to photograph bears, and has NO experience doing so, especially with Grizzlies in Canada, then they would be smarter to go to the zoo. Shadows or not... caricatures or not. I guess the big question for an inexperienced person would be, is how much is that photo worth to you?[/font]

[gtal]

[font color=\'#000000\']OK, I didn't mean to start a war here. The point is experience isn't something we are born with - we all start out inexperienced. There are many ways to gain experience, some safer and smarter than others. If the poster is committed to doing it and finding out for themselves the magic of spending time with a wild animal in its habitat, telling him to go to the zoo instead is not very helpful advice. Relative safety is a poor replacement for what might be an intense spiritual experience.

Howard - for a grizzly to live like a grizzly, males require a territory of 200 to over 1000 square miles, which I'm sure is more than the entire Calgary zoo covers. While the experience of seeing a bear may be educational and entertaining to humans, it is nothing like the experience of sharing their company in the wild. The following quote from John Murray does a good job of describing it:

"Those who have packed far up into grizzly country know that the presence of even one grizzly on the land elevates the mountains, deepens the canyons, chills the winds, brightens the stars, darkens the forest, and quickens the pulse of all who enter it."

To compare such an experience to viewing a caged animal with the cacophony of screaming kids and the flashing of tourist cameras as a background is indeed a caricature.

Guy[/font]

[howard smith]

[font color=\'#000000\']I don't go in search of bears.  They just happened to be where I am going sometimes.  My son and I did our best to avoid bears.  We were traveling by raft.  We ate a meal and then rafted at least an hour before stopping for the night.  We were very careful with food, making sure our cooking gear and clothing was as clean as possible.  (We changed clothes after a meal.)  We left our food, cooking gear and ooking clothes sealed in bags with moth balls placed on top.  From the tracks, several bears visited the bags every night but never touched them.  We took no food with us on our persons.  Yet we saw several brown bears every day along the river and the salmon were not very plentiful.  Bears came into our camp at night while we slept but did not bother us except to leave some pretty scary tracks for us to see the next morning.  We were in northern BC, southern Yukon and the Alaska panhandle.  The bears were unhabituated to people.  We saw only one other small group of people in ten days.

If you are going to be traveling where there ar bears,you should learn to recognize bear signs (buried food for instance) and something about bear behavior and gesturing.  Seeing a cub should cause a lot of concern.  As cute as babies are, mom isn't far away and she is likely the most dangerous animal you could possible encounter in the wild.

Had I wanted to attract bears, it would have been easy.  I don't like zoos, especially for photography.  I was suggesting places where bears accustomed to seeing humans are present.  Those bears are likely more dangerous than the really wild ones.  But if you keep your distance and remain where the bears are used to seeing people, like Brooks Falls, you should be OK.  I don't think the bad encounter rate there is very high.

It has been my experience that habituated black bears in the Sierra of California are far more agressive and cause more damage to campers than brown bears in Canada or Alaska.[/font]

[Curt]

[font color=\'#000000\']I suggest you check with some sites in Alaska known for Grizzlies & Salmon. Katmai National Park has the Brooks Falls as a previous poster mentioned. I was ther there last year in mid-July for a fabulous experience. It is as safe as you can be in the midst of grizzlies. It is fly-in only & camping is allowed within a electrified perimeter. Here the humans are in the cages & bears walk around freely.
An alternative is a outfitter with a boat anchored off the Katmai coast, especially a spot known as Hallo Bay.

Rather than travel to BC without an area known to have bears you should try nearby Alaska.[/font]

[ph74]

[font color=\'#000000\']Thanks a lot for all the answers. I am not so stupid to go alone in the forest to see a couple of grizzlies. I have seen on Internet some trips with guides like http://www.grizzlytours.com/main.html
Does somebody have an experience with this kind of organization?[/font]

[ph74]

[font color=\'#000000\']In my mind, I have asked informations about guide tours but the message has been short. My goal to see grizzlies is the same that to see polar bears in Churchill or lions in Tanzania.
A kind of  photo safari tour with  safety conditions
I think that there are many guide tours about grizzly seeing in BC, or in Alaska and I would like get informations about theses tours. Which is the best?
Thank you[/font]

[Mike_Kelly]

[font color=\'#000000\']PH74,

I have photographed at Katmai Brooks falls and Admiralty Island in Alaska. Katmai has the opportunity to get the classic images of salmon jumping around the bears. It has a little bit of a Disneyland feel to me though, with more rangers  than bears. Late July and early August are when the fish are running. If you miss the salmon run there won't me much in the way of bears. September is late for ALaska.

Admiralty Island is more quiet and they limit the number of people who can go there in a day. Not as dramatic as Katmai but I have seen lots of mother and cub interactions. The location is called Pack Creek. The bears there in eary season will be eating grass rather than fishing but I have gotten closer images due to the grass is closer to the viewing area than the stream where the fish run. So it is a place you can go before the fish are running. Again first week in August to mid-August are normal times for the fish to arrive. A guide company that goes to  Pack Creek is Alaska Discovery (www.akdiscovery.com).

Being around bears is no differenet than being around people. You need to learn the rules about handling food and where not to go. But Grizzly Bears are not more dangerous that people if you treat them with respect. Yet like people there may be unpredictable individuals. I am more uncomfortable around Black Bears than Brown Bears.

Have a great trip and good shooting.[/font]

[Mike_Kelly]

[font color=\'#000000\']There are certainly people that get in trouble around wildlife. A moose can kill you just as dead as a brown bear. My point is that it is not necessary to have abject fear of bears. Even your statement about sow and cubs is not true. I have had a sow bring her cubs close to me to avoid a boar she was afraid of. Most of the time it seems it is about letting the wildlife come to you and them being in control rather than accidentally running into them or pursuing them.  I don't sneak around the forest with bears around.
At Pack Creek you can sit on the sand spit viewing area with nothing but 100 yards between you and the bears including sows with cubs, all day. The bears will not be interested in you in the slightest if you stay where they can see you, you act predictably and you don't have any food.

It is about learning the rules (the bears rules) and following the rules. Doesn't mean I won't be killed by a bear someday but I think I could get killed by a drunk human driving a car more easily.[/font]