photo: Wendy Shymanski
Grizzlies in paradise
Writer-biologist Frances Backhouse returns to visit old friends in the Khutzeymateen Valley, where her fieldwork helped to create a rare sanctuary for these bears.
For a full half-hour we sit in the rain. Eleven people in a small inflatable boat, floating in a quiet back channel of a coastal estuary. The clouds hunker ever lower. Steady drizzle turns to earnest downpour. Fat raindrops bounce off the water. But no one complains. We’re entranced by the scene before us: a female grizzly and two yearling cubs placidly stuffing themselves with fresh spring greens. We’re so close we can see bits of leaves and dirt clinging to their thick damp fur, and hear them tearing the grass-like sedges with their teeth.
One of the cubs makes a low crooning sound as it sidles up to its mother. Finding the target, the youngster stands and suckles, still humming, until its mother gently steps away and resumes grazing.
From the bow of our Zodiac, passenger Pam Casey of Stouffville, Ontario, beams me a smile that mirrors my own. Since arriving by floatplane from Prince Rupert the previous morning, our group of bear watchers has seen a dozen different grizzlies in the provincial Khutzeymateen/K’tzim-a-Deen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary. We spotted the first less than an hour after boarding the Ocean Light II, the 22-metre ketch that is our home base for this four-day exploration of remote Khutzeymateen Inlet. Each new sighting renews the thrill of this remarkable wildlife-viewing experience.
Read more in the current issue of British Columbia Magazine
