Bear With Bears

Black bear launching towards a pink salmon

Hello, my name is Barry (Bear) and I like bears, mostly photographing bears but I just enjoy watching bears as they live their lives around us here on Vancouver Island. This was our third year in Campbell River and my first Salmon spawning season that I was able to spend as much time as I wanted outdoors  since I was off work after a long contract.

With time on my hands I was able to get out at all times of the day and really get a chance to get to know the local bears habits and personalities. I’m going to share some of my favourite shots from the season along with a bit of background on Black bear photography in my local area.

Black bear crossing the river and moving up stream while most of the other bears are still asleep

Although most of the bears tend to sleep during the day and start to come to the rivers edge a couple hours before the sun sets, they are all a bit different. There are a couple that like to be on the river during the day, seemingly so that they don't have to worry about being pushed out by more aggressive bears. A few bears also seemed to like early mornings, a couple of the mothers with cubs especially were less worried about people than they were about other bears.

Two bear cubs closely following mom down river

Later in the afternoon we start to see more bears along the river and more often multiple bears fishing in the same area. This year the number of different bears was significantly down for much of the season, at least during daylight hours. Although even in the mornings I didn't see nearly as many "leftovers" on the side of the river as I saw the previous years. This is certainly due to the reduced number of pink salmon spawning this year and possibly the river levels.

From the morning visits my favourites this year were almost always the mom and cubs. Most times Mom was making her way down the river looking for salmon with the cubs trailing behind, often playing and mostly not interested in what momma bear was doing. However I did have one fun encounter from the road where the bears were just relaxing a yard near the river, mom eating grass and lazying around and the two cubs play fighting.

Bear cubs playing around while mom chews on some fresh grass in a yard by the river

As the light fades in the afternoon the light levels drop quickly in the river valley which can be challenge when this is often the best time for catching the action shots. There are a couple of spots along the river that the bears fish from most often. One spot in particular on the river is frequented by bears, fishermen and of course photographers and tourists wanting to get a glimpse of black bears.

After missing a salmon on that last pounce now this bear notices that it has competition for the fish

The bears are pretty used to the people in this spot and the fishing is good enough that they will most often try to ignore the people but not always. Luckily there are a bunch of other locations that don't have as nearly as many people or fishermen around. In these locations I can often be the only one watching and from far enough away that their comfortable to continue fishing, eating and often resting within sight.

The light was getting pretty low but I managed to get this black bear jumping towards me as it focused on a salmon

These are the encounters I like the most and the ones that I learn the most about bear behaviour. These are the times that keep me coming back day after day. Getting to know some of the bears fairly well and getting some pretty decent shots over time. I still haven't gotten some of the shots that I want or at least not as clean of a shot. This does mean that again next season I will be out on the rivers continuing to observe and photograph bears and learning as much as I can.

Here are a few more of the shots I took this fall, hopefully next year will be just as interesting.