In the Field

Performing Mouth-to-Mouth - Grizzly Style. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. August 29, 2024.

I never tire of watching mother-cub interactions of Grizzly Bears! I captured this image of a female grizzly interacting with her "3rd summer" cub in a remote inlet in the Great Bear Rainforest in the late summer of 2024. This mother-daughter pair seemed particularly close and prone to interacting/touching almost constantly.

We watched this pair of bears intermittently over a two-day period and there was one REALLY odd aspect of what was going on. That odd aspect was the presence of a 3rd bear which was considerable larger than the cub but seemed to want to hang out and interact with Mom and cub. We never determined how the 3rd bear identified (i.e., its gender 😉) but it definitely was NOT the sibling of the cub - the size difference was just too great between them (I would have pegged the larger bear as a 5 or 6 year old). Mom was variably tolerant of the 3rd bear - at one point all 3 curled up together for a nap. We watched mom and the 3rd bear spare a few times (the dark bear in this image is the 3rd bear), but we also saw mom aggressively chase off the 3rd bear a few times. And...the 3rd bear definitely seemed to want to play with the cub (which mom wasn’t too thrilled about!). I would have loved to know the history of the bears and the exact nature of their relationship...maybe it was one of mom’s cubs from a previous litter, but who knows?

My go-to wildlife camera is currently the Nikon Z 9. But this image was captured with a Nikon Z 6III when I was in the midst of field-testing it. I prefer shooting my Z 9’s over the Z 6III (for a lot of reasons I won’t to into here), but when the ISO setting starts to climb towards or into the 5-digit range, the Z 6III really shines. This image was shot "only" at ISO 8000, but I have captured images with the Z 6III at ISO 25,600 and even higher and got amazingly good quality images (especially after treatment with DxO’s DeepPRIME XD2S algorithm).

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of these mom and cub bonding:

• Performing Mouth-to-Mouth - Grizzly Style: Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 6.6 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. As such, no baiting or any form of attractant was used and, as always, we attempted to minimize our impact on the ongoing behaviour of the subjects. I strongly encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

3. This image was captured during my Summer in the Southern Great Bear Exploratory Photo Adventure in late August of 2024. Each year I offer trips into the Great Bear Rainforest as well as tours into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary (to photograph grizzlies, of course!). Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

Performing Mouth-to-Mouth - Grizzly Style. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. August 29, 2024.

High Efficiency* Compressed RAW (NEF) format; ISO 8000.

Nikon Z 6III paired with Z Nikkor 800mm f6.3S. Hand-held. VR on in Sport mode. 3D-tracking AF area mode with subject detection on "Animal" mode.

1/400s @ f6.3; -0.3 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

Performing Mouth-to-Mouth - Grizzly Style. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. August 29, 2024.

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .nef (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD2S algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 8.1 Elite (using the appropriate lens/camera optical module).

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Phase One’s Capture One Pro (build 16.4.6). In the case of this image the only global adjustments were minor tweaks to contrast (a Levels adjustment) and the highlights. Selective local adjustments performed using Capture One Pro’s layers and masking tools. In this case numerous small adjustments and minor tweaks were made on 3 separate layers, with the tweaks being associated with "exposure balancing" and contrast adjustments (such as adjustments to brightness, clarity, highlights, shadows, etc.).

Photoshop modifications included insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

Performing Mouth-to-Mouth - Grizzly Style. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. August 29, 2024.

Species Status in Canada*: Special Concern (May 2002).

While Grizzly Bears (Ursus arctos) are not technically listed as "Endangered" in Canada, they have been extirpated from most of their historical range. Grizzly Bears are far more sensitive to intrusion/disturbance in their habitat than are Black Bears and are being increasingly forced into marginal habitat by human encroachment. The Great Bear Rainforest along the central and northern coast of British Columbia is one of the last strongholds of the Grizzly Bear in Canada, and even this population is coming under increasing pressure.

On December 18, 2017 the government of British Columbia banned grizzly hunting across the entire province. This major conservation victory came after decades of tireless work by many dedicated conservationists and ecologists and, most importantly, it reflects the opinion of the vast majority of British Columbians. And, it means that AT LEAST while the current government remains in power grizzlies are finally "safe" in British Columbia.

Now that we've at least temporarily won the battle to save grizzlies in BC, it's time to re-focus our efforts toward protecting ALL of BC's carnivores, including Gray Wolves, Black Bears, Cougars, Wolverines, and more! Simply put, there are no ecological, economic, or ethical arguments supporting the trophy hunting of carnivores.

*as determined by COSEWIC: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada