Princess Royal Island is home to the rare honey coloured Kermode, or spirit bear, the unusual colouring of which is due to a double recessive gene.
The experience and knowledge of native Gitga’at guides turns searching for them into an adventure, involving boat trips and visits to viewing platforms beside salmon streams. Patience is likely to be rewarded not only with a sighting of spirit bears, but also black bears fishing for salmon.
Spirit bears are highly elusive, but the optimum period to see them is from late August to early October. June to August is an exceptional time for sighting humpback whale, orca, Dall’s porpoise, and Pacific white-sided dolphin. The lodge here has forged a close relationship with whale researchers based nearby sharing their knowledge.
In the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest, the island has a diverse habitat, with sandy beaches, lowland old-growth rainforest and alpine tundra, interspersed with fiords, estuaries, and lakes.
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