I mentioned previously that we were going to see bears in Canada, so I ought to update you on that. There were a couple of places near Tadoussac that offered this experience. We went for one just outside the nearby town of Sacré-Coeur.
I took this photo just so i could say we had seen some bears. You are not guaranteed to see them, but they did offer you the opportunity to come back the next evening if none showed up. That was not an option for us as we were leaving early the next morning.
There were about 50 people gathered at the visitor centre. They showed us a brief film about the Bears before we boarded a couple of school buses to drive to the observation site. We had a short walk through the woods to a large shelter with benches overlooking a clearing across a small valley. We were told to be very quiet.
All we could hear were various birds and the stream below us. We did hear what sounded like a gunshot at one point, but it may have been far off. We could see a few birds and a squirrel came to check out the food that is put out for the bears.
After an hour or so this bear wandered out of the woods.it was about 30m away. Many people just had their phones to take pictures, but I had my bridge camera with a decent zoom.
This is a totally wild animal, but i expect that they will avoid people generally.
There are hollow logs with covers that the bear soon knocked off. They are full of fruit and some sweet treats. The bear had its fill and hung around for a while before wandering off. We were there a little longer, but no more showed up before we had to go. Some people were a little nervous walking back to the bus knowing there were these large creatures around, bit others just let their kids go on ahead.
The guides encourage you to write messages on the inside of the bus so we could see that some people saw several bears and others got none.
It was a special experience for us as the largest wildlife we would see at home is a fox or maybe a deer. I know some places in Canada and the US get bears around their homes.
Before we went into the woods this bug landed on me. I am sure it is harmless, but it gave me a start.
Since then we have been in Montreal where the main wildlife seems to be squirrels. We saw this one in a park.