Responsible tourism on Canada wildlife vacations
On the other hand, a wildlife watching vacation heaps a whole load of responsibility on your shoulders. You’re placing yourself in tundra and rainforests that are built for bears and whales – not people. You’ve got to ghost in and out, tiptoeing as lightly as you can. The best way to do that? Travel with a tour operator who uses guides committed to leaving only a positive impact on the wildlife and environment. Go with guides that value the safety of animals almost as highly as your safety – and that, in fact, value the wildlife’s happiness over yours. Read on to see what makes a responsible wildlife vacation to Canada.
Our Canada wildlife Vacations
Western Canada highlights tour
Ten days exploring natural highlights of West Canada
Churchill polar bear tour in Canada
A unique opportunity to encounter polar bears
Kayaking with Orcas in British Columbia
Kayak with orcas and humpacks in beautiful British Columbia
West Canada vacation
Two week wildlife adventure through Western Canada
Canadian Rockies small group vacation
Explore the stunning scenery of the Canadian Rockies
British Columbia Fall wildlife tour
Combine Orca watching and Grizzly Bears in Western Canada
Canada polar bears and beluga whales tour
Swim with Beluga Whales and spot Polar Bears in the Arctic
Canada vacation, national parks and wildlife
Beautiful Canada, Mountains to Oceans!
Canada Arctic wilderness safari, Polar bears & Narwhals
Spot polar bears and swim with narwhals in Arctic Canada
Arctic Canada wildlife vacation, birds, bears & belugas
Specialist led set-departure in the heart of Arctic Canada
Johnstone Strait kayaking tour in Canada
Unique Kayaking from our Orca Camp in a Wilderness Paradise.
Canadian rockies & Vancouver Island vacation
Explore the National Parks and wildlife of Canada
Orca family kayaking tour, Vancouver Island
4-day sea kayak & whale watching camp designed for families
Baffin Island cruising expedition, Canada
Expert Led, Polar Bears Belugas, Narwhals, Inuit Culture
Swanson Island kayaking tour, Canada
The Ultimate West Coast Adventure in the Orca's Territory
Arctic cruise, heart of the Northwest Passage
Explore the Arctic region’s diverse treasures
Polar bear tours in Canada
Week watching Polar bears in the Canadian Arctic
British Columbia wildlife vacation, whales and bears
Rugged scenery and wildlife of Western Canada
Arctic polar bear fly in safari, Canada
Thrilling safari in the middle of Polar Bear Alley, Canada
Canada wilderness vacation, Rockies & Vancouver Island
Experience the Canadian wilderness and wildlife
West Canada 17 day tour
Three weeks exploring West Canada from mountains to coast.
Northwest Passage cruise in the High Arctic
In-depth adventure along the fabled sea route
Canada remote arctic cruise, the Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage to Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands
Northwest Passage Arctic cruise, Canada and Greenland
Retrace the steps of the intrepid Franklin Expedition
Grizzly bear tour in British Columbia
Drift down rivers watching grizzly bears catching salmon
Western Arctic cruise, Canada and Greenland
Venture where the sun never sets
Orca kayaking and camping tour, Canada
Kayak expedition alongside Orcas, Vancouver Island, Canada
Polar Bear watching in Canada
Live on the Arctic Tundra among polar bears
Responsible bear watching
Living with bears


Habitat loss
Habitat loss goes hand-in-hand with human-bear conflict. In the Canadian North, polar bears are spending longer near easy food sources – say, towns like Churchill – while waiting for the ice to form, which they need to hunt seals from. Contrary to popular belief, more polar bear sightings don’t necessarily mean that their numbers are increasing. It means that their icy territory is rapidly shrinking, moving them towards easier pickings.For a country that touts its green credentials – banning captive cetaceans, top-notch recycling facilities, cities powered by hydroelectricity – the Canadian government is pretty bad at saying no to oil pipeline development. The Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline through the Great Bear Rainforest has been shelved, but there’s always another in the works.
What you can do
Hunting
Hunting is one of the greatest threats to bears in the Great Bear Rainforest. This near untouched 3,800km2 treescape is home to around 100 ultra-rare spirit bears, whose white-gold fur stems from a recessive gene. And while British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations has outlawed killing spirit bears, hunters with a permit are perfectly entitled to shoot a black bear that could potentially be carrying the recessive gene. In 2012, nine of the First Nations communities who live in the forest voted to ban bear hunting in their traditional territories. The government is still issuing hunting licenses.Hunting polar bears is perfectly legal in Canada. It’s also the only country in the world that allows international exports of polar bear furs and skins. This isn’t usually hunting for subsistence; polar bears are a commercial commodity, with the biggest skins fetching up to £14,000. It’s a complicated issue. The Canadian government and conservation groups see polar bear hunting as sustainable, as they’ve recorded a healthy population of polar bears. They argue that climate change is more of a threat, anyway.
Conversely, some conservationists have suggested that the way polar bears are counted is flawed. And the very fact that hunters target the largest males means that the healthiest animals – the ones more likely to survive increasingly warm winters – are being removed from the population.
What you can do
Responsible orca & whale watching
Cetacean crisis
Canada passed the ‘Free Willy bill’ – or less catchy Bill S-203 – in 2019, effectively banning the capture and breeding of cetaceans like whales, orcas, dolphins and porpoises for entertainment. Out in the Pacific Ocean, however, the 70 strong pod of southern resident orcas of British Columbia are struggling. Their plight was summarised by the image of one of the whales swimming with her dead newborn for 17 days. The pod’s first healthy calf in three years was spotted in 2019; it’s like a held breath.Environmental stresses like PCB chemical pollution and heavy shipping are largely to blame. But disturbingly, the whole ecosystem is cracking up. Unlike the transient mammal-munching orcas of the Inside Passage and Baffin Island, Vancouver Island’s resident population depends on the disappearing Chinook salmon.
Salmon runs – which form the orcas’ richest food source – have crashed in recent years. Whale watching companies blame overfishing and agricultural waste. Fishermen blame warming waters and noise pollution from leisure boats and ferries. The Canadian government has responded by spending £36m setting up protected zones, limiting marine traffic and increasing food sources – including closing coastal waters off Vancouver Island to commercial fishing outfits. But many locals, including First Nation communities, are reliant on salmon fishing for income. It’s a complex picture.
Other whales unwittingly dice with danger, swimming through dense shipping grounds on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Canada. Propeller scars on slow-moving right whales are common. Malnourishment is another big issue. Over 70 underfed grey whales washed up dead between Washington and Alaska in the first half of 2019. Perhaps, like the orcas, their food stocks are shrinking; perhaps conservation measures have been so effective that the whale population has outgrown its food source. The jury’s out for now.
People & culture
In British Columbia, the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nations have partnered with university researchers and NGOs to research rare white spirit bears (or Moksgm’ol) in a non-invasive way. It’s a sacred animal to the communities, and they’ve learned that to protect them from hunting and logging then they’ve got to get scientific proof that the numbers – and salmon they depend on – need staunch protections. The provincial and federal governments have got behind them, investing £71m in a stewardship programme for the 27 indigenous nations of the Great Bear Rainforest.
The rainforest First Nations communities have also pioneered eco-lodges inspired by ancestral long houses – car-sized cedar dining tables and ocean-view windows included. Indigenous people are often the only permanent residents of the most remote communities in BC’s far north and Baffin Island, so they’ll give you a new perspective on Canada and the wildlife in it.
What you can do