Bears of Bute

About the Bears
About the Homalco First Nations People

Join us on board the "Chinook Spirit" for a trip through the waters surrounding the Discovery Islands. Our destination is Bute Inlet, home to Homalco First Nations people and the Bears of Bute.

Homalco Wildlife Tours invite you to share the experience of the magnificent creatures found along the shorelines of the narrow waterways and inlets between Campbell River and Bute Inlet.

Your day trip starts in Campbell River on board the comfortable 32-foot "Chinook Spirit". Leaving from the Discovery Harbour dock, the one and a half hour trip will take you past abandoned villages and mile high peaks. You will arrive at the mouth of the Orford River where lunch is supplied. You will then be transferred to one of the specially designed viewing platforms that provide a safe area to wait and watch for the Bears of Bute.

Departures are at 10:00am daily and return by 6:00pm. Lunch is included. Tours are limited to 11 passengers. Bring warm clothing and don't forget your camera and binoculars.

Bute Inlet is a long, deep fjord that cut into the coastal mountain range of British Columbia. The remote and pristine area of the British Columbia coastline is located 50 kilometers north across from Campbell River on Vancouver Island. Bute Inlet reaches 66 kilometers into the coastline where the Homathko and Southgate rivers feed waters running from the glaciers and ice fields high up in the mountains.

The Orford River is located halfway between the entrance to Bute Inlet and its headwaters. The glacier green waters of the Orford are feed from the Lillooet glacier and many lakes and creeks nestled in among the rocky peaks. The luscious green valley and estuary of the Orford River are perfect for attracting wildlife that roam along the shores of this coastal river.

At the Orford River site is the Taggares-Homalco salmon hatchery that operates year round. The hatchery produces Chinook, Chum and Coho salmon that enhance the natural stock. It has a capacity to incubate up to 4 million Coho eggs, 6 million Chum eggs and over 150, 000 Chinook eggs annually.

To get to the Orford River site, the Chinook Spirit departs Campbell River and travels for approximately 90 minutes cruising at up to 32 knots.

To get to Campbell River, traveling by car, reach Vancouver Island via British Columbia Ferries departing from Tsawwassen or Horseshoe Bay and arriving in Nanaimo. Driving on the new Inland Island Highway you will reach Campbell River in less than two hours.

About the Bears
The Grizzly or Brown bear is the most widely distributed species of bear in the world. At one time the Ursus arctos ranged across Europe and Asia through parts of China and Japan to Siberia and across to Alaska and down through British Columbia and as far south as California.

With the advance of Western civilization, the grizzly populations have dwindled and disappeared completely from many areas with the exception of the West Coast mainland of British Columbia. The Bute Inlet region is the southern border of what is now referred to as the Great Bear Rainforest. The geography and wildlife are mostly intact so the great Brown bear has flourished in the valleys and along the coastline of this region.

Grizzly Bear Facts
The Grizzly Bear can grow to a height of 2.5 meters (7.5 Feet) and can weight as much as 400 kilograms (900 pounds). Their colour is mostly brown but they can range from almost blonde to almost black. The prominent features of the Grizzly are the large claws on the forefeet used for digging and the hump on the front shoulders.

The grizzly mothers start breeding at five to seven years old and have one to three cubs every three years or more during their 25-year life span.

Black Bear Facts
The Black bear is the smaller cousin to the grizzly and grows to a height of up to 1.9 meters (6 feet) and weighs in at between 90 to 250 kilograms (200 to 600 pounds). Their colour ranges from black to brown or cinnamon and sometimes (although rarely) a grayish-blue or ivory-white. Black bears appear higher at the hind end than the front and they have large round ears and a long nose.

Mother bears start with their first offspring at three to five years of age and have between one to four cubs every two or more years over their 20-year life span.

Both Grizzly and Black bears are opportunistic feeders searching for plants, berries and meat for food. At the Orford River location, Grizzlies are most often found feeding on salmon swimming upstream to spawn starting in mid-August through to October. The rich red meat of the Chinook, Coho, Chum or Pink salmon are an essential part of the bears diet. In order to survive the long cold Bute Inlet winters, the bears feast on salmon for much of the fall until they have stored away enough fat to get through hibernation.

Black bears are often seen along the shoreline at low tides turning over rocks to get at crabs and mussels. The larger Grizzly bear does not tolerate the smaller Black bears eating in their territory so it rare to see a black bear feeding on salmon when Grizzlies are in the area.

Homalco First Nations
The Bute Inlet region has been home to the Homalco People long before the first Europeans sailed the Inside Passage of Vancouver Island. Their main villages, now abandoned, were on the Homathco River, the Southgate River and around Orford Bay.

The Homalco people from Bute Inlet are a part of the Sliammon people that include the Klahoose from Cortes Island, the Island Comox from Vancouver Island and the Sliammon from Powell River. The four bands share a common language known as the Comox dialect.

As proficient hunters and fishers, the Homalco culture is rich with stories and legends that relate to the land and the wildlife that they share it with. Creatures like the Raven, the Heron, the Mink, the Whale and the Mountain Goat are all characters that are used in stories to relate the history of a proud people.