A pair of grizzly bears swimming near Vancouver Island in British Columbia is so unusual it may be a warning of habitat crashes on the mainland, or climate change, or both. Two bears were seen swimming from island to island about five miles off Port McNeill at the northeast end of Vancouver Island. Scientists believe they swam across Queen Charlotte Strait, island-hopping from the mainland over 25 miles away, a type of grizzly tourism.
Chris Darimont, Hakai-Raincoast Conservation Scholar at the University of Victoria, notes that the change in behavior coincides with declining salmon populations and significant habitat loss due to logging, although a direct link hasn’t been established.
"We should be paying attention to their arrival on islands. They have evolved the ability to swim for hundreds of thousands of years. That they have not colonized islands before in any huge way tells us that there is something up. They are now putting that swimming ability to use,"
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People on nearby Cormorant Island were cautious due to the swimming grizzlies coming ashore near Alert Bay and wandering through the community like tourists.
“Cormorant Island is nice in that it has no large resident predators – so no cougars, no bears that live full-time here,” said [Justin Beadle, chief administrative officer for the village]. “There have been a couple of black-bear sightings over the years with the smaller black bears making their way onto the island then heading off. But this is the first time in anyone’s memory that there has been a grizzly bear, much less two of them at the same time.”
The bears were first sighted on Friday evening, apparently after having swum over from nearby Pearse Islands. Over the weekend they rambled around the small island and at times walked down residential streets.
Once rarely seen off the mainland, Darimont says the grizzlies already have been island-hopping further north along the coast this century, where they’d never been found before. The bears seem to be changing or expanding their range.
“We’ve been tracking this colonization of islands by not only males but also females with young,” he said. “It is increasing geographically through more and more islands. It is increasing with apparent frequency, so it looks like a very real pattern of this shift or expansion of range.” [...]
Dr. Darimont said it isn’t clear what is making the bears expand their range.
“Something in the environment is changing or has changed,” he said. “That’s about the only thing we can say with certainty. Whether it corresponds to climate change or some threshold of logging [that’s been reached] on the mainland, or a decline in salmon I can’t say.” [...]
“Compared to the last century, especially on the south coast, there is an order of magnitude less salmon . . . when there are food shortages, individuals go further afield to find sources of food.”
According to indigenous people, grizzlies occasionally were seen on Vancouver Island but they didn’t set up dens and establish colonies. About 15,000 grizzlies now live in mainland British Columbia. Of the 56 population areas, 9 are listed as Endangered and 5 have hunting bans due to small population size.
Grizzly bears are an umbrella species: conditions favoring their survival indicate that the ecosystem can support many other animals and plants. That grizzlies are leaving portions of BC and swimming to islands may indicate conditions are deteriorating and that other species are becoming imperiled. Perhaps the grizzly bear tourists are looking to relocate to nicer homes (less logging), in a good climate, near better restaurants (more salmon).
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Black bears and cougars are visiting me more often now. Is something up near you?