My – how they’ve grown!

As many parents will agree, youngsters have a way about growing up fast. One day, they are tiny; the next day they are taller than you. One day, they seem so new to the world; the next it seems like they run the world.  The research crew had one of those observations this week in a watershed not far from the Raincoast bunkhouse.

About this time last year, we started viewing the images from a remote camera from one of our non-invasive hair-snagging stations. Our jaws nearly hit the floor as we saw a momma bear grizzly and her three lanky, second-year cubs.  Though they only spent a few minutes at our site, genetic data confirm that all four left hair samples. And what fun they had investigating the camera and scent pile, playing with one another and momma!

Momma bear and her thee little cubs spend a few minutes at our hair station. Captured by remote camera, June 2010.
Momma bear and her thee little cubs spend a few minutes at our hair station. Captured by remote camera, June 2010.

We thought about this family a lot during this past winter. Did they all get enough salmon to make it through the winter sleep? Did the abundant snow make a cozy den for them to sleep away the dark nights?  Would we see them again in the coming spring?

We would! And my – how they’ve grown! At the very same river we were treated to quite a show this past week. For a joyous hour we watched at a healthy distance as momma and her now rotund young grazed away on estuarine sedges.  Heads bobbed up and down. The cubs flopped on the ground, scratched, and napped between feeding bouts.

Not wanting to disturb them we went on our way, our cameras filled with pictures and our hearts and minds with memories.

One year later. Momma and her much bigger cubs. May 2011.

This experience has reminded us that although conservationists and scientists are often most interested in “populations”, we still form relationships with individuals: individual bears, individual watersheds, and individual moments. Some relationships are ephemeral.  Some, like the one we’re building with this grizzly family, hold steadfast, even amidst an ever-changing, busy world.

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Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.

We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.

Coastal wolf with a salmon in its month.
Photo by Dene Rossouw.