Southern Resident Killer Whales - K Pod was here!

We had the Southern Resident Killer Whales K Pod on all our Whale Watching Tours yesterday! I manifested orcas the night before because I knew we had guests on board who really, really wanted to see Killer Whales. The whales were picked up coming down the coast near Hot Springs Cove and we were able to see them off Cleland Island. John and I knew they were SRKW but we were not sure which pod they were. We don't see these whales very often! We were able to get some photo identification shots with our permit. The killer whales were last seen traveling down the coast, likely back to the Salish Sea! 

Afterwards we sent the photos to Ken Balcomb at the Centre for Whale Research in Washington state. He confirmed they were K Pod! With only 18 members, K Pod is the smallest of the three pods in the Southern Resident Killer Whale community. The  oldest female in K pod is K12, estimated to have been born in 1972. K pod has three mature males, K21, and K26, and K25.  The most recent calf born into K pod is K44 (male, born 2011), the first known calf of K27.

As with most marine mammals, their movements are determined by their food source. For the Southern Residents, this means following the salmon returning to the Fraser River in British Columbia every summer. In the winter, when Chinook salmon are less abundant, they  must expand their range to find food. 

SRKW Status: Endangered. Designated endangered in Canada in 2001, USA in 2005. 

Please note that when we are photographing killer whales with our permit we do not have paying guests on board and we send our photo IDs to DFO, Strawberry Isle Marine Research Society and the Center for Whale Research. 

Vancouver Island Wolves

Coastal Wolves move like ghosts along the shorelines. One of the shyest and most elusive creatures on Vancouver Island. Living in packs from five to twenty, the wolves usually stay away from human activity. Individual wolves in a pack play different roles in relation to the others in the group. The parent wolves are the leaders of the pack - the alpha male and alpha female. The alpha male and female are the oldest members of the pack and the ones with the most experience in hunting, defending territory, and other important activities.
The other pack members respect their positions and follow their leadership in almost all things, The alpha wolves are usually the ones to make decisions for the pack when the group should go out to hunt or move from one place to another. Vancouver Island’s wolves are a variety of grey wolf, Canis lupus, known as coastal wolves or sea wolves. Smaller than most grey wolves (though a large male may still weigh 40 kilograms, about the size of an Alaskan malamute), they have shorter, coarser coats that often have reddish or golden tones as well as shades of white, black and grey. As a wide ranging top predator, habitat destruction is the primary threat to these wild animals. We rarely see these wolves foraging alone the shoreline for chiton and other seafood that may wash up. The wolves have a unique relationship with the coastal First Nations peoples, for whom the wolf is considered as a revered animal treated with admiration and respect. Historically, the Nuu-chah-nulth have had a strong ceremonial culture, characterised by feasting and entertainment with song, dance, contests and potlatches. The Wolf Ritual, which took place in the winter, was a particularly elaborate celebration of a general secret society that aimed to teach people about heroism, life and death, and the teachings of the elders. The estimated 250 wolves on Vancouver Island are not protected. 

We do not see wolves often on our tours but when we do it is a gift. 

Photo Credit: Jennifer Steven

Bear Cub Rescue near Tofino

On Friday, May 25th we were notified that Hot Springs Tour Boat Guides spotted a deceased black bear sow in Ross Pass. They reported that there was a cub with the black bear's body. John, Michelle from Strawberry Isle Marine Research Society and myself jumped into the Eco and headed up to have a look. We arrived in Ross Pass around 5:00 PM and saw a Black Bear laying on a cliff not moving and a tiny cub laying on the mother black bear. We anchored the boat and John headed up to have a look. The black bear was laying on the ground with no visible trauma or wounds. You could see that the cub had been breastfeeding on the mother after she had died. John looked for the cub and it was hiding in a hole beneath him. He tied to pick it up but it was spooked and climbed a tree. We got back in the boat and moved off to see if it would come down. It did. We tried again to get the orphaned cub but it went back up another tree. We were going to loose light and made the hard decision to come back in the morning. We were all worried that predators would take the cub in the night. 

John and I woke up at 5:30 am. We launched the Lil Salty and headed up to Ross Pass. When we arrived on scene I told John that I would put the boat up to the island and he should jump off and quietly creep up to the cub. If it was still there. Within minutes we could see the cub moving and laying on its dead mother. John quietly walked up to the mother's body to pick up the cub. It saw him and moved into the hole. He patiently waited for it to come back out to lay on its mother. It did and he was able to pick it up and carry it back to the boat. It was screaming. My heart was breaking listening to its screams but I knew this was its only chance to survive. 

The cub was distressed and looked thirsty. John fed the cub some water and checked it over. The cub was so adorable! We brought a pet crate to transport the cub back to Tofino. John put towels over it to keep it dark and it was quiet on the boat ride back. We took the cub back to our house and called the conservation office and the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre. Plans were made for us to meet a conservation officer in Port Alberni so he could transport the cub to the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre. 

We have had updates that the cub is doing well, feeding and being checked by a vet. We hope to adopt the cub and help pay for her expenses while she is in the centre. Eventually she will be released back here when she is ready to be on her own in the wild. We are elated that we could help make a difference. We make our living off of Bear Watching in Tofino so we will always give back to the bears. 

Thanks for all your kind words and support. We never think twice about jumping in the boat to help both wildlife and humans whenever we can. 

If you want to donate money to help the cub while it is at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre please reach out to them! We will also be donating to help fund the cub's recovery at the centre until it can be released back into the wild. 

Jennifer