The Great Bear Rainforest is the largest remaining intact temperate rainforest on earth.
Located on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada, it covers 6.4 million hectares encompassing hundreds of islands, mountains, glaciers, rivers, deep fjords and forests with some of the largest and oldest trees on earth.
It is one of the world’s last great wilderness areas and home to the iconic “Spirit Bear”, grizzly bears, wolves, salmon, orcas, humpback and fin whales, and indigenous cultures.
Temperate Rainforest
The Great Bear Rainforest is home to some of the last stands of old-growth forest in the world. In it you can find western red cedars that are over 1000 years old and towering sitka spruces over 90 meters tall.
Much of the Great Bear has never been logged, burned or otherwise destroyed. It can rain as much as 5 meters a year in the Great Bear.
Culturally Modified tree
This tree is a western red cedar and was used in the past to harvest its bark by the Heiltsuk people. The bark would then be used for weaving textiles like skirts or a headdress. These are called “culturally modified trees” and are protected from logging.
Salmon Forest
Up to 80% of the yearly nitrogen in the ancient trees that grow along salmon rivers in the Great Bear comes from salmon. Bears, wolves, eagles and other animals will carry salmon into the forest where they fertilize the trees and other plants.
Biomass
Temperate rainforests contain as much as four times the biomass, or living material, per square meter as compared to a tropical rainforest.
Salmon- A Keystone Species
Pacific salmon are a keystone species of the Great Bear Rainforest and feed over 200 species of animals. The rainforest salmon run is one of the most spectacular migrations on Earth.
Adult salmon will return from the open ocean to the exact same stream where they were born. Scientists don’t know for sure if this ability is linked to smell or some kind of internal compass.
Salmon are not only important to the animals, but are an important food source for the people who live in the Great Bear.
Chum Salmon
During the spawning phase chum males get vertical bars in reds, greens, and purples, while females get a black horizontal stripes. Male chum salmon develop large "teeth" during spawning, which resemble canine teeth. This may explain the nickname “dog salmon”.
Pink Salmon
Pink salmon is one type of species of Salmon. Pinks are the smallest and most abundant species. They can be recognized by the green blotches on their sides.
Changing Colors
Salmon are anadromous, meaning they can move from the salt water of the ocean to the freshwater of rivers and streams. When they return to the freshwater streams to spawn, their bodies change shape and color. Male pink salmon like this one develop a large hump on their backs.
Spirit Bear
A symbol of the Great Bear Rainforest, the kermode, or “spirit bear”, is the rarest bear on earth. Found only on a few islands in the Great Bear Rainforest, there is thought to be only ~400 of them. Other than their white fur, spirit bears are the same as black bears.
Spirit bears hold a prominent place in the traditional stories of the indigenous people of the Great Bear Rainforest.
Traditional Legends
While science can’t explain exactly why spirit bears are white, one First Nations legend says that Raven, the creator in indigenous coastal tribes, flew among all the black bears and turned every tenth bear white as a reminder of the last ice age which ended ~12,000 years ago.
Bear eating salmon
In the Fall, bears feast on salmon, like this chum, as they return to the creeks to lay their eggs. The bears rely on the salmon to store fat to help survive while hibernating during the winter.
Grizzly Bear and Cubs
Grizzly bears are the largest of the bears found in the Great Bear Rainforest. There are far fewer grizzly bears than the smaller black bears. This is because grizzlies require such large territories, as much as hundreds of square kilometers for males.
Additionally, grizzlies are the second slowest reproducing land mammal in North America behind polar bears. This makes conservation of grizzly bears that much more critical to their survival.
Rub or Mark Tree
A mark tree is where bears in the area come and rub themselves to leave their scent. When other bears pass by, they will smell the tree and will know which other bears are in the area. This is useful for avoiding conflict or finding a partner to mate with.
Bear cubs
Grizzly cubs are born blind in their mother’s dens in the winter where they are nursed until the spring when they emerge. Usually they will live with their mother for 3 years before they have to fend for themselves.
Coastal Wolves
Unlike inland wolves found in the rest of North America, coastal wolves of the Great Bear Rainforest rely on the ocean to supplement their diet. A coastal wolf is as happy eating salmon or a dead whale found on the beach as it is a deer the pack hunted in the forest.
Cameraman
This scene is from the making of the Great Bear Rainforest IMAX film. The filmmakers spent over 400 days in the Great Bear over 3 years waiting to see wolves, bears and other wildlife to film.
Wolves live in packs of 10-15 animals. Leading the pack will be the alpha male, often the largest and strongest who will breed with the alpha female who is in charge of defending the family and choosing where to build a birthing den.
Friends of humans
In indigenous culture, wolves are revered and respected and have been allowed to live alongside humans for thousands of years. This differs from many other places where wolves are found, from Russia to the Rockies where they have been seen as a threat and danger.
Salmon Feast
Salmon is part of the staple diet of indigenous peoples of the Great Bear Rainforest. This salmon feast is in Bella Bella, in Heiltsuk territory. Archaeological records show that the Heiltsuk have lived in the Great Bear as far back as 11,500 years ago.
Fire Cooked Salmon
This is a traditional method for cooking salmon by the fire before there were BBQs and metal grills. Cedar strips are used to stretch and spread the fillets of salmon so that it cooks evenly.
Educating the Youth
When European settlers first came to Canada they tried to make the indigenous people of the Great Bear abandon their traditional practices.
Today, communities are working to educate their youth about their traditional culture and heritage by teaching them how to prepare their traditional foods.