When a Female Grizzly Swims to Shore

[Editor’s note: This article was originally published by Hakai Magazine. Read the original story on their website.]

Joyce Ellis stood in the estuary near her home watching grizzly bears where grizzly bears aren’t supposed to be.

Vancouver Island hasn’t had a resident grizzly population since the end of the last ice age. And yet there they were on this June day — a sow and two cubs browsing in the grass. As the cubs rose onto their hind legs, Ellis raised her camera, capturing a portrait of a family poised to change the course of natural history.

Grizzly sightings on Vancouver Island are rare but have been increasing in frequency over the past decade. Young males from the mainland plunge into the ocean seeking new territory and a chance to mate. Some swim across Johnstone Strait, part of the Inside Passage, to reach the eastern shores of Vancouver Island. At three to 4.5 kilometres, the strait is the narrowest gap between the Island and the mainland. And if bears island-hop, the crossing can be as little as 1.6 kilometres.

At least seven grizzlies were spotted in spring 2020. At the time, Ellis recalls, people drove up from the more densely populated southern end of the Island to have a look. Those bears likely swam back to the mainland, however, when they found no potential mates. This year’s sighting is fundamentally different. It confirms the existence of the first female grizzly ever reported on Vancouver Island — and she has already given birth to a new generation.

Ellis, a retired municipal councillor and former mayor of Sayward, population 311, has been photographing wildlife on this stretch of coastal temperate rainforest for the past 11 years. Having caught wind on social media of the grizzly bear family, she realized that the trio was last spotted in Kelsey Bay, just a short walk from her front door.

“We usually have black bears,” Ellis explains, “and when we don’t see many black bears we know there might be a grizzly around.”

Locals warned each other to avoid the estuary and expressed concerns that the grizzlies might enter the village. Five years ago, a black bear mother met a bad end in someone’s yard after raiding a fruit tree and killing a dog in Sayward. A conservation officer killed her, Ellis says, and took the cubs to a wildlife recovery centre.

Ellis hopes this mother bear will avoid the same fate, not just for her own sake, or that of her cubs, but for all her future descendants. As the first known female grizzly on Vancouver Island, she could be the progenitor of an entirely new, self-sustaining grizzly population — the first in as many as 12,500 years.

‘Vancouver Island Female No. 1’

The grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) is the North American subspecies of Ursus arctos, the brown bear that arrived from Eurasia approximately 50,000 years ago.

As the glacial ice retreated about 11,500 years ago, grizzlies migrated south from what is now Yukon into mainland British Columbia. Vancouver Island, however, remained curiously free of resident grizzlies. Bones found inside a Vancouver Island cave indicate that they were present 12,500 years ago, near the end of the last ice age, but they soon disappeared. Today, the Island has plenty of excellent bear habitat and a thriving black bear population but no permanent grizzly population.

Bruce McLellan is a retired wildlife research ecologist and a former president of the International Association for Bear Research and Management. Now based in a small, unincorporated community on the B.C. mainland, he has been studying bears for more than 40 years.

It’s likely, he says, that black bears (Ursus americanus) and humans, who more easily live in proximity, may have outcompeted grizzlies as the Island’s climate changed. While grizzlies are typically bigger and can usually best a black bear in a physical confrontation, black bears have much smaller ranges than grizzlies and are more abundant on the landscape. They are also more efficient foragers. It’s also possible that people perceived grizzlies as more threatening and drove them away from food sources, perhaps even killing them.

And yet black and grizzly bear ranges often overlap. Why even a small population of grizzlies has failed to successfully recolonize the Island over such a vast stretch of time probably comes down to the swift marine currents of Johnstone Strait.

McLellan’s research has shown that male grizzlies, who are programmed to disperse, can swim up to seven kilometres, while females swim no more than two.

That’s why the appearance of the grizzly McLellan calls “Vancouver Island Female No. 1” is so remarkable.

Could Vancouver Islanders be witnessing the birth of a new grizzly population?

“Probably,” McLellan says. “Time will tell.”

Much depends on how Vancouver Islanders receive them.

Vancouver Island is about the same size as Taiwan. But where Taiwan has over 23 million people, Vancouver Island has relatively few — less than 840,000, with most living on the southern tip — and lots of prime bear habitat.

“Salmon streams, huckleberry fields, wild areas, big mountains,” McLellan says. “I mean, it’s a big, big place. So she could be the start of something.” He envisions hundreds of grizzlies could eventually be living on the Island.

The best scenario for a grizzly revival, he says, is if both cubs are female and they survive to at least 10 years old. They’ll likely mate with the young males arriving from the mainland. But if both cubs are male? “Wow, bummer,” McLellan says. In that case, we will have to wait until another male shows up and mates with their mom again, hopefully giving birth to females.

Not all Islanders will be pleased with the addition of these large, potentially dangerous animals. And their presence will affect well-established ecosystems that evolved in their absence. But for those like McLellan, who prefer to see the Island’s remaining wilderness supporting a full spectrum of wildlife, including grizzlies, the natural recolonization of a vast area they last occupied thousands of years ago is an exciting proposition.

Near the end of the last ice age, at roughly the same time grizzlies were disappearing from Vancouver Island, a small population of bears arrived farther up the coast on Alaska’s Kodiak Island. When the sea ice receded, they became stranded 37 kilometres from the mainland. Recognized as a distinct subspecies, Ursus arctos middendorffi, Kodiak brown bears have evolved into the largest bears on Earth.

Today, the island has a thriving population of healthy but genetically very similar bears. On Vancouver Island — about 10 times closer to the mainland — the genetic diversity of any future grizzly population shouldn’t be a problem. As we’ve seen, “there’ll be males coming over to mix up the genes,” McLellan says. And now, perhaps, the odd female too.

In the photograph Joyce Ellis took in June, McLellan sees a healthy female and two healthy cubs. “They look very good to me,” he says. He reckons this mom may have another 10 years of breeding, if she survives. While it’s impossible to know for sure how she arrived, or if she did indeed smash the previous female grizzly swimming record, he’s pleased she made it.

The grizzly future

Across North America’s grizzly bear range, the success of conservation efforts and changing attitudes mean more people are living alongside grizzlies.

Where, over the past few centuries, people usually killed them, now there’s more acceptance of their presence — at least theoretically.

McLellan warns that there will be challenges for Vancouver Islanders as grizzlies recolonize. If this mother bear and her descendants are to survive, locals will have to adapt.

He points to mainland British Columbia’s lower Elk Valley, and Pemberton Meadows near Whistler, where expanding grizzly populations are now established and residents are making changes.

“People have to learn how to live with them,” McLellan says. This can include removing food sources, like garbage, and putting up electric fences around orchards and beehives. When people don’t take precautions, conflicts arise that usually end in the death of the bear. The good news is, over his career, he’s seen that people can and do adapt, allowing grizzlies the chance to thrive.

While the future of this mother bear remains unknown, McLellan says what she’s already accomplished is truly remarkable. In fact, if he weren’t retired, he’d consider starting a new long-term project on the Island.

“Boy, I’d love to put a radio on her and see where she goes, see what happens to her and her cubs,” he says. “No kidding. I wish I was 25 again.”

But Vancouver Island Female No. 1 can probably do without the collar or scrutiny. After having swum across the Inside Passage — and pioneered a new frontier for her species — she’ll soon face her next big challenge: raising adolescents.