Communing with Grizzly Bears and Learning to Listen
Dark Communicating with Us
Meet Dark. She is a seven-year-old bear and recent mother, who unfortunately lost her cub due to her inexperience in mothering. She is a gentle, sweet creature who I recently met in Bella Coola and who upended all my previous thoughts and expectations about grizzly bears. She is also an incredibly beautiful creature.
I have been living in the Asheville, North Carolina area for the past five years and we had a black bear community on the mountain I lived on before i moved to my new house a couple of months ago. I enjoyed having black bear neighbors and just made it a point not to leave trash or food out to tempt them. I saw them with their babies (last year one of the mother’s had four cubs, which is highly unusual) and was happy to share space with them.
My thoughts about grizzly bears have always been different though. In 2013, when I drove across the country on a journey of personal discovery and to find out about the state of water, glaciers, and the like in the US, I had a guide meet me in Montana and Wyoming so I wouldn’t hike alone in grizzly bear country. I was terrified of seeing one when we were hiking, and I was relieved that the only one we encountered was just off the road and we had the car door to protect us. I was fearful that any grizzly bears we saw would attack us if we were too close, since they are apex predators and very dangerous.
Sue Flood talked me into going on this trip, but it got canceled two years in a row due to the pandemic and by the time they rescheduled it she was not able to go. I went anyway. I wasn’t sure why. I had just gotten married and my mother died on our wedding day. I was in trauma. I figured what better time to go visit grizzly bears than when your whole world has been turned upside down. I was half wondering if grizzly bear medicine would help me fill up my own being and allow me to proceed with the next phase of my life. It might sound crazy, but it actually worked.
Dark Approaching the Sandbar
So how was I able to communicate and enjoy the company of grizzly bears without fear? It was not because I decided I didn’t care about my future after my mother died. No, I have a new husband and am ready to create a life with him, but first I need to let go of all the PTSD I developed helping someone navigate heart failure, vascular dementia, the loss of her husband (who died five years before I moved her here), the loss of her son to drugs (he didn’t die, but they stopped communicating), the loss of her house to a hurricane, and the loss of her freedom as she lost more and more life skills. It was not easy, but I loved her with all my heart and had to be there for her every step of the way. I needed to commune with grizzly bears because they were the one creature I was deathly afraid of and I needed to conquer my fears of my own mortality and decline. Still, when I arrived in Bella Coola, British Columbia, I was not exactly certain how I was going to do this.
And then I met Ellie Lamb. After talking with her for five minutes, I realized that she is the Jane Goodall of grizzly bears. I mentioned this to her after the second day I spent with her, and she was so humble that she said she didn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Jane. She’s wrong. I saw this bear come out from behind a downed tree on a sand bar and she start walking through the water while we were sitting on the riverbank a very short distance away. I immediately sank to my knees and asked if we were okay. Ellie said, “Oh yes, we’re fine. That’s Dark. She’s seven and she has a sister named Perfect and they are both lovely. They both lost their cubs due to inexperience this year, but they’ll do better next year. Then Ellie started talking to Dark and Dark seemed to be comforted by her words and tone of voice. Pretty soon I was talking to Dark too. After awhile, Dark turned her back on us. Ellie commented that this was a very good sign and meant that she trusted us.
Dark Filleting a Salmon
Dark knew and trusted Ellie and went back to her normal behavior very quickly. This is the time of year that salmon spawn in British Columbia. After they spawn, the salmon’s metabolism begins to shut down and then they die. It was hard for me to watch, since they experience agonal breathing (gasping for air when not enough oxygen can be obtained) before they expire and that is exactly what happened to my mother. On the other hand, it put her death into perspective as part of the cycle of life. While the salmon are swimming slowly, they are much easier for the bears to catch and I often saw bears trying to figure out which one they should go for, or if they could catch several at the same time. Here Dark is filleting a salmon. She did it in one fell swoop. It was pretty impressive, but it also gave me pause and made me realize what harm they could do to us if they wanted to. But Dark wasn’t interested in hurting us. She just wanted to fill her belly before the long winter.
Dark Going for a Swim
After Dark finished the fish she was eating, she found another one and took it over to the opposite river bank to eat it. Sometimes, just like humans, they like to eat in private. I asked Ellie if she had left for good, but she said the fishing was too good and she’d be back soon. Sure enough, we saw her come out of the thicket and dive into the water again. It was so interesting to watch a grizzly bear engage in her normal behavior up close. I asked Ellie how long she’d been enamored with grizzly bears and she told me since she was seven years old. She said she’d spent her life listening to what grizzlies have to say. Later, I read an article about Ellie, and during the interview she said, “When people learn about these gentle, polite animals, they gain a greater understanding and are motivated to protect them. It is this understanding and compassion that leads me to guide people into their worlds.” Ellie is an incredible grizzly bear advocate. She teaches respect, understanding of boundaries, common sense, the value of listening, and the importance of understanding signals.
Dark in the Atnarko River
We spent about thirty minutes watching and talking with Dark. It was just Ellie, myself, and my roommate Stella from Scotland. We were staying at the Tweedsmuir Lodge in Bella Coola. The lodge has a viewing platform with an electric fence around it. They also take you out on daily float rides on inflatable rafts with swivel seats. On the viewing platform, you are removed from the bears’ immediate vicinity and on the rafts they seem to think you are part of the raft and not something to be worried about. The experience of encountering a grizzly bear at eye level on the shore with nothing to protect you is entirely different. At first I felt vulnerable, but Ellie was so calm and Dark seemed to be listening and calmed by her voice. Ellie told me that it’s sometimes harder for the male guides, since the men that work at the fishery throw rocks at them and bears, just like people, are prone to generalizing. But we were just three women sitting on the bank with this magnificent creature a short stone’s throw away. And because of Ellie, Stella and I were completely calm. Somehow a mutual understanding was created.
Dark on the Sandbar
Dark walked along the sandbar looking for more fish for awhile. I made a lot of photographs and then I videoed her for awhile. It was mesmerizing to see a grizzly bear up close who was just going about her business without concern. I felt trusted and like I wasn’t an intruder. That is always what I strive to be when I go in nature, but I never thought that was possible with a grizzly bear before. After about half an hour, Dark suddenly made like she was going to swim straight towards us. I asked Ellie if that meant that Dark wanted us to go. She said she wasn’t sure and that we should wait to see if she repeated that behavior. A few minutes later she did. Ellie told me she thought I was correct and that she wanted us to leave. I asked if we should just calmly stand up and walk backwards while looking at her, and Ellie said that was exactly what we needed to do. We all thanked her for allowing us to sit with her a while. Later, I asked Ellie if it is all about space and she said yes. The grizzly bears signal whether they want you to be that close or not, but she said they also pick up on our signals. Once a grizzly bear came very close to her while in altercation with another bear. Ellie was a bit freaked out for a second and was about to signal that the bear was too close, but she said it picked up on her discomfort and moved away at the last minute and she didn’t have to make any gestures. We need to recognize that animals, like people, have their own corridors of safety when it comes to interactions and we always need to ask permission and be respectful. If we look for signals, they will communicate with us. We need more finesse in co-existence with each other and all other lifeforms. The planet is a shared home and its resources belong to us all.
Meanwhile, in July the United States the Sierra Club and The Center for Biological Diversity filed an appeal to prevent the killing of up to 72 grizzly bears to accommodate livestock grazing in Yellowstone National Park. Grizzly bears are native species and rather than killing them so livestock can graze free of charge on public lands or because people are afraid of them, the public should be educated as to how to coexist with these magnificent creatures–especially as we encroach on more and more of their habitat.
Ellie Lamb with the Eagle Feather
The photo above is of Ellie after she traversed downed trees earlier that morning to retrieve a tail feather a bald eagle dropped. We were standing on a different river bank and suddenly this bald eagle flew by at eye level. I didn’t have my camera out yet and it took us all by surprise. Ellie felt guilty that she’d thought it was a rock and had’t alerted me in time, but I told her it didn’t matter. The experience of having an eagle fly right by your face is memorable enough. Still, to assuage her guilt, she climbd these logs to get the feather. I was so deeply honored to meet this amazing woman and spirit. After our encounter with Dark, Ellie gave me a huge hug. Each special encounter she has like that touches her soul she said. Ellie knows all the bears in the region and the scientists contact her for information. When she is not guiding, she is out there observing her grizzly bear friends. They could not have a better advocate. I wish I could have spent a month with this woman. She tread lightly, was humble, and knew how to communicate with other species. The bears and the indigenous people all respect her and I know why. What a life-changing experience that I will be forever grateful for. i know I need to go back and spend a summer there sometime. Stay tuned for forest photos. What a magnificent country these bears call home.