Spirit Bears of the Great Bear Rainforest in BC

Chasing Spirits...

…Of The Great Bear Rain Forest

Yes it does rain!

A lot!
You'll need to be prepaed to endure lots of water if you want to seek out the elusive Spirit Bears in the Great Bear Rain Forest. I guess the name gives that clue away.
It rained every day that we were there, some 350mm in total according to the weather experts, but that didn’t dampen the pleasure of being in such an amazing place.
It’s been my ambition to see Spirit Bears as long as I’ve known about them, I really don’t know why, but I do feel they are one of the great wonders of the animal kingdom.

Time

Goes by, so slowly...

Especially when all you are doing is watching water pass by, some falling from above and some flowing from further up the valley as the rivers flow out to sea, but it does fill the time waiting for the all too elusive Spirit Bear to show up.
Watching the salmon slowly making their way upstream was part of our entertainment while we waited for the bears to show up.
We were lucky enough to be there when the temperature was still quite good, but being the start of autumn, it was quite cool when the wind got up, so we were all very well wrapped up for protection from the elements.

The lifecycle of the Salmon

So important to the Spirit Bears and the whole Forest ecology.

Watching the Salmon come back to their spawning grounds after swiming thousands of miles is pretty amazing. These fish have travelled for two to four years in the open seas dodging many predators on the way, just to come back to spawn in the river that they were born in. Ultimately they will die after spawning so close to the very spot where their own life started.
The bears will feed on the carcasses of the salmon as well as chasing the live salmon if they appear to be easy prey, but the bears are trying to stock up on nutrients, so not wasting too much energy is an important step in the process.

Feeding many

Not just Black & White Bears

The death of the salmon serves to give life to many other animals and birds of the forest, as well as adding nutrients back in to the ground. Nothing goes to waste in this environment.
Many small birds will feed on the salmon eggs, about 1% will develop into small Salmon and swim out to sea, while Pine Martins, Ravens and Eagles will feed on the discarded carcasses after the bears have finished with them
Salmon carcasses that are left in the water will likely be washed out to sea where it will feed Halibut and other scavengers of the ocean.
Some carcasses are taken onto land by the bears, left-overs here will eventually rot into the ground, feeding the flora of the forest with much needed nutrients.

The Great Bear of the Rainforest

Ursus americanus kermodei

The Great Bear Rainforest is home to many Back Bears as well as the Spirit Bears. All of the bears of this region are Kermode Bears, although many people use the term to describe just the white bears.
There are also some Brown (Grizzly) bears migrating to the islands, which could threaten the existance of all Kermode bears in this region. Brown Bears will typically kill black (and white) bears to secure their feeding territory, there are few places where they co-habit in harmony.
After sitting out in the rain for 5 days, most of us had given up on the chance of seeing a Spirit Bear, but then, later in the afternoon we spotted this big Black Bear that came down to the river for a meal and gave us renewed hope.
We all watched and photographed him for quite a while, that was until we heard that a Spirit Bear was close by.

The Spirit Bear

The worlds second most rare bear

The number of Spirit Bears is largely unknown, estimates range from 100 to 310, but no-one has managed to sucessfully count them so far.
The majority of the population lives in the Great Bear Rain Forest and many reside on just two islands, although there are some on the mainland around the Nass basin and Terrace areas.
A full grown Spirit Bear will weigh between 80-200 kg., females generally weigh a bit less than males and they usually live up to 25 years in the wild.
Spirit Bears are highly respected by the Tsimshian First Nations who share their traditional territory with the Kermode Bears. Spirit Bears are called Moksgm’ol in Tsimshian languages and several cultural stories exist around them.

A Spirit Bear Cub

Black or White?

The Spirit Bear’s white fur is caused by a recessive genetic trait that affects only it’s coat colour, it is not an albino, it has dark eyes and often the nose is black or very dark, the fur is white from root to tip and sometimes has a slight colour as in theis photo, hence why this bear is called “Strawberry".
For a cub to be born white, both parents need to have the recessive gene, but a cub that is born with black fur can carry the gene, so both parents don’t need to be white, in fact two black bears carrying the gene can produce a white bear.
Seeing a Spirit Bear emerge from the dense forest is an amazing experience and can be very moving for some. Fortunately these bears are accustomed to people and are not to concerned by our presence. Hunting is banned in the area, so they are no longer under threat from man and they seem to understand that. Hunting Spirit Bears is illegal everywhere in BC.

Credits and trip information.

The trip we went on was organised by Tim Irvin, he’s an ecologist, photographer, and writer with a strong passion and a great knowledge of wildlife. His details can be found on his website here: https://timirvin.com. I can thouroughly recommend this trip, if you want to see Spirit Bears you will be hard pressed to find a more knowledgeable, capable and helpful tour guide. Of course, no-one can guarantee wildlife will appear just when you want it to, but choosing the right tour will improve your odds through genuine local and wildlife knowledge.

We stayed in Harltey Bay at the Gitga’at Spirit Tours Guest House, our local guide was Marven Robinson who is the definitive Spirit Bear expert, his knowledge of the Kermode Bears and the Great Bear Rainforest is second to none. We were all made to feel very welcome by Marven and his family, we were very well fed and well looked after for the duration of our stay.

Marven played a huge role in saving the Great Bear Rainforest and the Spirit Bears from the devastation that could have been caused by the oil tankers, you can see more in the movie Spoil, it’s definitely worth watching:
On Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/19582018
On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3bKmz4od3g

More info about the Gitga’at First Nations: https://www.gitgaatnation.ca

To see more photos from our trip to Stewart, BC and Hyder, Alaska as well as more images from the Spirit Bear Trip, go to the Great Bear Rainforest Gallery.