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Bear Update: status of berry crop

He glides with purpose striding smoothly from one edge of the ski trail to the other. His pace is faster than usual - less food more travel. His long neck, like a reversed rudder, angles through the metre-high foliage, eyes alert to colour.
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He glides with purpose striding smoothly from one edge of the ski trail to the other. His pace is faster than usual - less food more travel. His long neck, like a reversed rudder, angles through the metre-high foliage, eyes alert to colour. With no obvious effort he quickly nibbles a few berries, floppy lips and a protruding tongue finishing one stem while instantly rebounding to an adjacent stem for more. Nothing there. Keep going... keep looking.

He pushes away from the patch and plows through a cluster of regenerating mountain hemlock conifers. Letting the tips brush his underside, he signs his presence for the day.

A rotten log halts his gait. Two flicks from his left forepaw and enough wood is removed for a nasal-investigation.... No ants. Keep going... keep looking.

One more step and again nose to the ground halting him in mid-stride. His right forepaw flips to one side a flat rock the size of a large cooler. A long tongue cleans away the cream-coloured carpet of carpenter ant larva, a protein bonus.

Three more steps and he's back into another berry patch. Seventeen glacous first ripening oval-leaf blueberries are consumed in one mouthful. No chewing; just swallows them whole... no time. Angling his six-foot long, 350 lb. body uphill he quickly surveys another four stems. Full, but not ripe.

He suddenly changes direction and orients downward along an open timbered ridge picking off scattered berries of various colours. Another half kilometre down and ripe berries become more plentiful... but not without consequence.

He hesitates. Thrusting nose forward he recognizes a troubling scent... female. But not just any female - older, wiser, grumpier female. Not someone he can push around so easily.

Maybe one more patch... two more steps are met with a series of panicked huffs from a young bear climbing 30-metres down-slope, followed by the rearing of a dark brown head about half the size of his. The smaller head disappears then charges up-slope four metres, jaws huffing and popping. Another time maybe... not now. Keep going... keep looking. The large male, named Skinner, abruptly changes course, away from mother and cub.

The large beautiful brown pelage mother bear, named Daisy, stands alert in her berry patch watching the male bear twice her size, veer off. Only seconds later she resumes feeding. She swings her head back in the direction of the treed cub. Five minutes later she is joined by her seven-month-old cub. Both continue their frenzied feeding to fatten for hibernation.

Skinner looks back at the sounds of the cub's descent, the desire for reproduction not totally gone. Winter and berries take over. Keep going... keep looking.

A heavy snowpack during late winter and prolonged colder temperatures including periodic snowfall and frost until late June, when many berry plants were exposed, have cut the early summer berry crop in half from the valley to about 1,000 metres elevation, just below mid-mountain. Berry plots were at 60 per cent abundance and 40 per cent ripening.

Lower berry supply, including reduced low elevation grazing areas, resulted in higher numbers of bears seen more frequently by people, a situation that normally leads one to think that the population is increasing. I don't think it has. From April 1 to Aug. 15, I identified a minimum of 98 black bears throughout Whistler, with 65 of those bears using the Whistler Blackcomb ski area. Both numbers fall within the norm of bears counted since 1996.

The flipside to a lingering snowpack is that lush green-up is still available to bears along high elevation (>1500-metres) ski trails (normally it isn't at this time of year), allowing male bears to help rebound from the slowly ripening berry crop to more clover grazing.

Female bears with their reproductive requirements need ripening berries much more urgently than males. So clover - when planted in safe, appropriate areas - helps keep bears out of people areas during late berry ripening period.

As of mid-August, the high elevation berry crop is at 80 per cent abundance but extremely uneven in phenology. Because berry shrubs were sticking out of deep snow-patches through early summer, the same shrub will have a few large, green berries while the rest will be just beginning to set fruit. This scattered availability of berries will force bears to revisit shrubs several times to check ripening, causing bears to expend more energy "looking" rather than "consuming." Bears normally re-visit berry patches but with a more consistent rate of ripening that supplements energy spent moving from patch to patch.

If warm, sunny weather systems hold through late August to mid-September, the high elevation berry crop should maybe produce at least 60 per cent ripening. The later berries ripen, the fewer days bears have to feed and gain weight.

If we don't experience extreme temperatures and receive periodic rain through a sunny September, bears could have good berries through mid-October. Usually much of the berry crop is depleted by early October. A later berry crop would certainly help make up for the failure in summer berries.

Anyone with questions about bears can reach me at mallen_coastbear@direct.ca

Thanks to everyone who shares their bear sightings.