Much of the rugged terrain in the Coast Mountains is only intimately known to animals who range between its peaks.
But for Michael Allen, who spends countless hours monitoring grizzly and black bears, the backcountry is like an old friend.
Allen is an for 31 years. Each spring and fall, he gives an update on the number of bears he’s identified in the 麻豆社国产and Elaho River valleys, Whistler, Upper Lillooet River, and Upper Birkenhead River valley. But what drew Allen to his pursuit of bears in the first place?
A life-long passion
Growing up in the West Kootenays, he felt at home outside. At 10 years old, he would head out alone to search for the animal that fascinated him, and while it concerned his mother, he never heeded her or anyone else’s warning.
“I identified with bears,” he said. “I was just drawn to the outdoors, and I grew up on the edge of a mountainside. I didn't really like school, and I was just pulled into nature."
He grew curious about bears despite what his culture taught him: bears are aggressive killers and people should shoot them.
“I was nervous but nothing really bad was happening, so I kept going. I remember seeing the first one by myself when I was probably 12 or 13," he said. "What I saw was not what everybody was telling me that bears were, and it just clicked."
After the first encounter his interest “soared.” He kept coming across more black bears near Trail and Rossland, and as they ran away, he would follow, hiking further and further into the alpine, eventually giving up as bears’ aversion to humans won out. That passion has continued to this day.
While he’s not a biologist, and is quick to stress that point, Allen has studied bears all the same while also working various environmental jobs. He worked as a bear-viewing guide for 19 years at Whistler Blackcomb, has given talks to school kids since 1997, and also delights travelling adults with his talk for international tour groups from Australia and New Zealand.
“I was a very shy person, so I kind of broke the barrier with school kids. If you can handle kindergarten and Grade 1 class for 30 minutes, you can pretty much handle anything,” he said.
Fall bear update
Attendees of Allen’s sold-out free public talk at the Whistler Public Library Dec. 3 became enthralled with his footage, watching sows and their cubs rub on trees, seeing grizzlies' incredible claws as they wander by and sniff at his camera or laughing as bears get overwhelmed by the number of fish in a stream. But aside from the fun videos, Allen is capturing a massive amount of data on the mammals and the changing climate they live in.
“Nobody's really put in the time that I have out there. And I think a lot of people in the beginning thought it was kind of nuts and a little bit obsessive," he said. "But it's my 31st year. I'm still doing it… largely, I do it for me, and I think it's important. I think bears are indicators of change.”
He monitors the interplay between scarce food sources in years with berry crop failures or fewer salmon, and how many cubs a sow has each year. Weather data and proximity to humans are other important data points that impact bears' behaviour and survival.
“If it's good berry season you get lots of fat females, and you got more cubs. But if it's a bad berry season, those bears living in Whistler and Squamish, they know that there's alternate food sources [in the Village], but that's risky, those moms with their offspring trickle into the valley, and then they get shot,” he said.
This year’s berry crop and salmon run in the Sea to Sky provided a “double whammy” of sustenance. Black huckleberry, dwarf and oval leaf blueberries were highly productive. Chum, pink and coho salmon are another important source for bears to put on weight before denning over winter. Allen explained pink salmon run every other year in late August and September, and they weren’t around this year. Coho are winter fish. That leaves chum as an integral part of bears’ diet before they slumber.
“The bears only really fish October, November, December, and then they got it shut down and hibernate,” Allen said. “November is kind of an effortless month to get fish. You don't have to battle cold temperatures and snow. But, if there's no chum, and this could very well be the future, then bears are forced to stay out into December and fish more for coho and even into January.”
This fall, streams and rivers around 麻豆社国产were thick with chum, so much so that one mother grizzly’s belly was dragging on the ground.
His fall count followed 13 grizzlies in the 麻豆社国产River watershed—five adult males, three immature males, and four adult females including one with one cub from this year.
In upper Lillooet River and Upper Birkenhead River, he observed 12 grizzlies—three adult males, three immature males, three adult females, and three immature females.
He captured a minimum of 108 black bears from remote cameras in 2024—fifty bears in the Upper 麻豆社国产River watershed, 10 bears along the lower Cheakamus and 48 bears at Whistler.
With his cameras at Upper 麻豆社国产River, black bears he identified included 29 adult males, seven adult females and four cubs, with 10 sub-adults. Lower Cheakamus River had four adults males and three females, two cubs born this year and one sub-adult. Because his cameras near rivers are seasonal, Allen said they don't reflect the abundance of bears over all seasons.
Observed Whistler black bears included 18 adult males, 11 adult females, nine cubs from this year and 10 sub-adults.
The Bear Whisperer’s technique
Allen’s trail cameras are in strategic locations based on rub trees and food sources—berries, wetlands and salmon. Rub trees are what he calls “the key” to sampling bear populations. Bears use rub trees to mark their territory and communicate their presence, leaving their scent as they wiggle their backs against them. They also make for good measuring sticks.
“You'll see how the bears change in size. The bear stands up and you can see his sex and his neck and chest mark. You see how tall he is, and you think he's big, and then a huge grizzly comes in and kind of overshadows that,” he said.
Another solid place for permanent cameras is wetlands, so rich in food that bears often don’t need to leave to stay fed as they gorge on skunk cabbage.
Allen's cameras are in locked boxes and can stay there year-round, with lithium-ion batteries that withstands -40 C.
“Most of my camera sites, it’s hell getting to them," he said. "It’s harder for me, but most years, I’ll get animals and no humans. That’s what I want.”
For those who missed Allen’s talk at the Whistler Public Library Dec. 3, keep your eyes peeled for a spring update in 2025. There’s little doubt he’ll have more to share.
“Nothing’s more interesting than following a bear for 25 years across a changing landscape,” he said.
