Wolf and black bear cub on Vancouver Island on Oct 1.Geoff Heith/The Globe and Mail
Hoping to capture an image of a wolf in the fog, photographer Geoff Heith hiked out before dawn last weekend to a spot on the rugged shores of northern Vancouver Island, aiming for the mouth of a river where severe drought has trapped salmon who cannot return upstream.
There are so few wolves on the island, the odds were against him. Perhaps two dozen wolf packs range across more than three million hectares of land, but he had a fresh tip that there were wolves on the river. He ended up in the right place at the right time, to catch a standoff between two apex predators who were drawn to this unusually abundant fishing spot.
It was barely daylight and dense with fog when Mr. Heith and another photographer emerged out of the forest, onto the beach. They turned toward the river and immediately spotted two or three wolves.
The wolves disappeared before the pair could get their cameras out.
But the water here was full of pink, chum and coho salmon, waiting for the rain to open their route upstream. Eventually one wolf reappeared, climbing up on a log to survey the newcomers. Mr. Heith and his friend hid behind a log 100 metres back from the river. “I got a couple of quick shots of the wolf staring at us, and then they disappeared. And I went, oh crap, that was gonna be our only opportunity. We weren’t even ready.”
What the north end of Vancouver Island does have, however, is a large black bear population. Mr. Heith, who moved up here just a year ago, knew his chances of salvaging the day were good.
“What the bears typically do is they’ll come down to the river, catch a salmon and go back into the forest to eat, then come back again – it’s just like a grocery shop.”
A mother bear with her cub appeared on the slick rocks. “Then we saw the wolf pop out of the forest,” he recalled. Now it was hard to know where to aim his camera.
He captured in a single frame a moment where the cub and wolf appear to be staring each other down. Suddenly, the cub roared and charged, sending the wolf skidding on the rocks to change direction. With his pack nearby, the wolf might have had an upper hand, and the cub seemed to think better of its attack, turning back to scramble up a tree. “But then the mom came in for backup right after, and chased the wolf away.”
Mr. Heith returned home to Port Hardy, one of the larger communities on the north end of the island. He posted his photo of the standoff on the “Hell Yeah Port Hardy!” Facebook site.
Megan Hanacek, a professional biologist who works in the region, spotted the photo there and recognized Mr. Heith had captured something special.
“Your chances of even running into a wolf pack is very, very rare,” she said in an interview. To capture the interaction of two top predators is a once-in-a-lifetime shot. “It’s an amazing part of the world. We’re just extremely lucky to live where we are.”
She applauded the two photographers for behaving in a way that did not disturb the animals. “They definitely did try to let the moment happen naturally.”
The coastal wolves of Vancouver Island were wiped out through government-sponsored campaigns of hunting, trapping and poisoning.
Since the 1980s, however, wolves have made their way from the mainland to repopulate the island’s forests and coastlines. Wildlife researchers say it is unlikely that their numbers have fully recovered, as most of Vancouver Island’s old growth forests are gone, reducing the numbers of the small black-tailed deer that are an important source of food. The province estimates there are between 180 to 250 wolves on the island.
Mr. Heith was careful not to disclose the precise location of his photos, hoping the wolves won’t be bothered by visitors seeking their own encounters.
“I grew up in the Lower Mainland,” he noted. “Having these kind of close encounters with animals is pretty unique and special. Every time I capture anything that is wild, I’m always fairly excited. But this one was just next level – it was one of the most amazing experiences you can have as a photographer.”