Prime Grizzly Bear Time In British Columbia!

When the Fall salmon run starts, hungry grizzlies do something they've waited for all year :: Come down to the shores to feed! After living on sedge grasses, the huge bears are more than ready for a feast of fatty salmon. After all, they need to pack on the pounds for the long, cold winter.

September is when the salmon 'run' (well, they don't actually 'run', but they swim very fast!) from the open Pacific back to the rivers and streams where they first hatched several years ago.
It's a bittersweet homecoming -- once the salmon lay their eggs, they die.


This rich tapestry of life is the focus of boat tours that operate from Telegraph Cove, on B.C.'s Vancouver Island (That's in Canada, in case you were wondering). A limited number of tour operators are allowed to head for Knight Inlet, on the B.C. mainland, where visitors can watch grizzlies dine at fairly close range. Bear watchers quietly come ashore, then tiptoe up forest paths to the viewing platforms.

For more pictures of grizzlies and black bears, see Snapshot Journeys :: Telegraph Cove, B.C.

As for the salmon, journeying so far just to be eaten: Well, if their time is up, they may as well be sustenance for a bear.