Feature:
Bear Witness at Khutzeymateen Park
“…Gathering in Khutzeymateen are
1,000- pound grizzly bears.
No human is permitted to set foot in
Khutzeymateen.
…It’s home to about 55 grizzly
bears.
The 44,300-hectare park, 45
kilometres north of Prince Rupert in northern British Columbia, is North America’s
only grizzly bear sanctuary.
Although nobody is allowed in the
park, thousands of visitors venture up here in late spring to view the
magnificent beasts in their natural environment. They usually encounter Ursus
arctos horribilis by drifting in small tour boats along a fiord at the edge of
the park.
…The grizzlies are in hibernation
until April, deep in the coastal mountains, but in May they wander down to the
shore of the fiord to eat the new spring grasses…
Another good time to spot them is
when the salmon show up in August & September…
Males can weigh in at 455
kilograms…with claws 9 centimetres long & canine teeth of 5 centimetres.
A grizzly
can break a deer’s back with one swipe of its arm…The bears will eat pretty
well anything, but their main diet in Khutzeymateen involves sedges, the long
grasslike plants growing at the water’s edge as well as sea barnacles & mussels.
And of course gorging on fresh salmon that fight their way up stream to spawn,
fattens the bears up for hibernation…
Khutzeymateen was created in 1994
jointly by the B.C. government & the Tsimshian First Peoples Nation. Two
Tsimshian park rangers live on a floating cabin beside the park for 14-da
stretches & visitors are required to check in with them.”
Pat Brennan
POSTMEDIA
NEWS
The Montreal Gazette
July
19/2014
Cute Critter Pic
Weekly Chuckle
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