A fully-grown male grizzly bear weighing about 700 pounds was recently recorded on video on northern Vancouver Island.
“You know we’re always looking for black bears in the fall but it’s really cool to see the grizzlies,” said Bud Logan who recorded the video.
Logan is a wildlife photographer and experienced hiker on the north island and says more grizzlies appear to be making their way here.
“There have always been the stories about grizzlies coming to the island, but you never quite saw them. But over the last five or so years we’ve had quite a few more grizzlies showing up,” he added.
Dene Rossouw has also been lucky enough to see the same bear and has snapped hundreds of photographs.
CHEK News has agreed not to disclose the exact location to ensure the bear’s safety.
“This bear is a beautiful, beautiful animal,” said Rossouw. “Disclosing the location sometimes attracts the wrong crowds. And sometimes also it attracts people whose basic primal instinct is to when they see a beautiful animal is just to kill it.”
“You know the more attention a bear gets, the more likely that something could happen to it,” added Logan.
It’s believed grizzly bears swim to the north island where the mainland is closer and they come here to find new territory after possibly being forced out by bigger bears on the mainland.
However, this particular bear isn’t a juvenile so it has some people wondering why it came here.
“This one surprised me,” said Logan. “This guy’s a big bear, he’s 700 to 800 pounds. He’s not a young male being pushed out.”
It’s believed there could be at least a handful of other grizzlies on the north island including an unconfirmed report that a sow was seen with her cubs.
“And none of them, as far as I know, are causing any sort of trouble so I think we need to adopt an appreciation for wildlife, especially grizzlies and leave them alone,” said Rossouw.
Dean Stoltz
