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Wildlife Holidays in Canada
Canada’s vast stretches of wilderness and miles of rocky coastline are home to some of nature’s most beautiful creatures—including 195 species of mammals—and seeing them in the wild is among the most magical of travel experiences. On a mountain hike, you’re likely to spot a bald eagle soaring overhead. Motoring just offshore, you’ll see dolphins and sea lions, seals and more. But for whatever reason, size never fails to impress us, and arguably the most exciting of encounters involve bears and whales. So if giant creatures are your thing, let us introduce you to some of Western Canada’s most impressive—and beautiful—inhabitants. Entrée Canada offers the most exclusive collection of over-the-top wildlife experiences in the country.
Kermode Bear Viewing
Contrary to popular misconceptions, kermode bears are not related to the polar bear, and they’re not albinos. Rather, they’re a subspecies of the American black bear, 10% of which are white. They’re known as “spirit bears” to Canada’s First Nations people, and hold a prominent place in their mythology. Of the few hundred believed to exist in the wild, 120 inhabit Princess Royal Island—which makes luxurious and serene King Pacific Lodge an ideal setting for tracking the exquisite creatures. The Great Bear Rainforest setting also boasts plenty of grizzlies and black bears, superb fly-fishing and hiking trails galore…the perfect base for a once-in-a-lifetime eco-adventure.
Grizzly Bear Viewing
Also known as the North American brown bear, the grizzly bear is these days most commonly found in western Canada—where there are some 25,000 of them. Our favourite viewing spots include B.C.’s pristine Nakina River, where we helicopter in to remote Nakina River Base Camp, near the Yukon and Alaskan border. There, a bear expert with 38 years of experience serves as your guide and host during a Private Grizzly Bear Encounter—one of the most intimate viewing experiences anywhere. Another prime viewing area is the Great Bear Rainforest, where we use the Great Bear Lodge as our base for observing not just grizzly bears but also wolves, black bears, otters, pine martins, mink and bald eagles on a 6-day Grizzly Bear Retreat. When you’re not tracking wildlife, your naturalist hosts will invite you on interpretive rain forest walks, sea-kayaking tours of the estuary, or a boat cruise to explore nearby glacier-carved inlets. Of course, in B.C. it’s always possible to combine Whales & Bears. We love Sonora Resort, a luxury wilderness retreat in Desolation Sound, for both—as well as plenty of additional eco-adventures. You’ll see grizzles along with orcas, minke and humpback whales, plus have the opportunity to take a helicopter tour over glaciers, kayak on the Inside Passage, go white water rafting, salmon fishing and more.
Polar Bear Viewing
Experts believe there are 25,000 to 30,000 polar bears left in the world—more than 15,000 of which reside in Canada. In fact, the region around Churchill, Manitoba comprises the single largest maternity denning area on the continent, and has earned the nickname “Polar Bear Capital of the World.” On a Polar Bear Great Ice Bear Tour, you’ll travel to Churchill to see the world’s largest bears for yourself as they congregate on the shores of Hudson Bay in anticipation of the annual hunt. Exclusive Dymond Lake Lodge is home base for an adventure that might also involve viewing the Northern Lights and spotting such wildlife as caribou, Arctic and red fox, Arctic hare, wolves and moose. A short flight from Churchill is another of our favourite wilderness retreats, the remote Seal River Heritage Lodge. During the summertime, you’ll see both polar bears and hundreds of beluga whales on Hudson Bay. This is an especially great trip for birders, who might additionally spot up to 100 species over the course of their Polar Bears & Belugas adventure. |
 Polar Bear in Fireweed
 Orca Whale
 Grizzly Bear in Nakina River
 Whale Breeching
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Grizzly Bear Retreat
This 6-day/ 5-night trip includes three full days of grizzly bear viewing in the Great Bear Rainforest—an area known to be one of the best places in the world to observe grizzlies and other wildlife such as wolves, black bears, otters, pine martins, mink and bald eagles. Nights in Vancouver and Port Hardy at each end of your time at rustic Great Bear Lodge facilitate an easy journey to the remote site, nestled at the mouth of a pristine salmon river.
Grizzly Bear Retreat
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Grizzly Bear Viewing at Nakina River
This 5-day/ 4-night trip is a completely private journey that you will never forget. Your guide and host, Phil Timpany, is a renowned expert on grizzly bear behaviour who will lead you into the serene wilderness surrounding the Taku River—the largest pristine watershed in the Western Hemisphere. Close to the Yukon border in northern B.C., there are no roads within four million acres of untouched land. Chinook, Pink and Sockeye salmon return to their birthplace up the Nakina River which, in season, brings a healthy population of grizzly bears to feed as they prepare for winter hibernation. You will enjoy as intimate experience with them as possible. You will stand close to them. You will co-exist.
Grizzly Bear Viewing at Nakina River
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Grizzly Bear Watching at Tweedsmuir Park Lodge
This 6-day/ 5-night trip includes two nights in Vancouver followed by three nights at Tweedsmuir Park Lodge. Some 40 miles east of Bella Coola, the lodge and surrounding park offer an untouched setting characterized by old growth forests, pristine rivers, stunning peaks, soaring eagles, and vast glaciers. In autumn, when the salmon arrive to spawn, it is host to one of the highest concentrations of grizzly bears anywhere. After urban explorations in multi-faceted Vancouver, wind down to wilderness calm and grizzly bear watching that will leave you breathless.
Grizzly Bear Watching at Tweedsmuir Park Lodge
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Kermode Bear Viewing at King Pacific Lodge
This 7-day/ 6-night trip is for those looking to combine the best of worlds—a cosmopolitan city and a luxury eco adventure. Experience the different faces of Vancouver and explore nature to your heart's content in B.C.'s Great Bear Rainforest.
Kermode Bear Viewing at King Pacific Lodge
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Polar Bear Great Ice Bear Tour
This 7-day/ 6-night trip is perfect for anyone who has ever dreamed of viewing polar bears in the wild. Dymond Lake Lodge is Canada's most exclusive polar bear viewing property, a place where you’re as likely to see the beautiful “Ice Bears” in your camp as you are on guided, informative tundra treks. Along with your hosts, the Reimer family, your guides will regale you with tales of life and adventures in Canada's Arctic.
Polar Bear Great Ice Bear Tour
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Polar Bears & Beluga Whales
This 8-day/ 7-night trip combines the thrill of seeing and hearing beluga whales with summer polar bear viewing on the tundra. Thousands of beluga whales congregate in the Hudson Bay each summer, and you’ll see and hear hundreds of them both from the air on the flight to and from the lodge and on boat tours in the Seal River Estuary. You’ll even have the opportunity to swim with them! Also interested in the belugas are the polar bears, here to wile away the summer and provide us with fantastic viewing opportunities in the process. You’ll have the chance to see a whole host of other wildlife on this trip as well—including caribou, fox (red and Arctic), wolves, moose and birds galore (such species as ptarmigan, Smith’s Longspur, Ross’ and Bonaparte gulls, jaegers, etc).
Polar Bears & Beluga Whales
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Polar Bears Photo Shoot Safari with Dennis Fast
This 7-day/ 6-night trip includes four nights at a fly-in only lodge located in the heart of polar bear country during prime viewing season—when polar bears congregate in large numbers along the coast of the Hudson Bay as they wait for the Bay to freeze so they can begin their annual hunt. It has been designed to provide discerning photographers ground level opportunities to shoot polar bears, caribou, Arctic fox and other wildlife in an untrammeled setting. Your photos will truly reflect the beauty of the wildlife and their surroundings. This entire Polar Bear viewing expedition is on foot and in the wild…no large buggies or buses required, this is intimate, eco-friendly and a life-changing experience.
Polar Bears Photo Shoot Safari with Dennis Fast
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Whales & Bears
This 7-day/ 6-night trip is designed for outdoor enthusiasts, offering a number of opportunities to view whales and bears, and to experience two very different settings: Desolation Sound—the largest and perhaps best known marine park in British Columbia—and downtown Vancouver. Accommodations in both places are luxurious, with Sonora Resort offering extraordinary creature comforts in an awe-inspiring ocean setting on the Inside Passage. You’ll enjoy up-close views of grizzly bears, orcas, sea lions, dolphins and more. From Vancouver’s Fairmont Pacific Rim, you’ll travel to Victoria for more whale watching and to explore Canada’s most English city.
Whales & Bears
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