For the past 17 years since the establishment of Chilcotin Vacations Guest Ranch in 1990, we have taken an active and significant part in Grizzly Bear research. By doing so, we have contributed towards the understanding and the body of knowledge of these spectacular creatures, from their life cycles, seasonal habits, feeding patterns, migration to their daily habits.
At the start of our operation, we developed “wildlife sighting” forms and subsequently taught our staff and guests how to use these form and record data. For 17 years, these forms have been used and continue to be used by our staff and guests on every trip into the mountains. We record big game sightings including Black and Grizzly bear, mountain goats, Californian Bighorn, Mule deer, wolf, moose and others. The collected information include population counts, male-female ratios, age and other details such as movement.
As well as the wildlife sightings, our staff and guests collect Grizzly hair from rub trees throughout our 6,000 square mile operating area. We will also train field staff of the local timber Licensee to also collect samples, and funding has been committed towards the costs of DNA Analyses. In 2005, a graduate student was hired and became involved in our Grizzly research. He is now completing his graduate degree using the hair samples and analyses for his thesis. The findings will contribute to the methodology of subsequent Grizzly research, and provide a basis for resource management practices and decisions.
We invite every traveler who books a vacation via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the vacations they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same vacation can have different views!
