Mammal watching suggestions for British Columbia

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  17 June 2025

  Eduardo Ruiz

  Hi!

  I went at the end of April around Vancouver and Canadian Rockies with my wife and a 10 month old baby, so, like you, i had limitations with my mammal watching opportunities and times i could be out looking for wildlife but still managed to see quite a lot.

  * Orcas: we went with the baby in the catamaran of “Prince of Whales” and we had an extended great show of the orcas near Nanaimo, the boat was packed but was we couldn’t have the baby in a smaller zodiac. We also saw steller’s sea lion, harbour seals, californian sea liond and bald eagles. The day after my wife went with Wild Whales with the smaller zodiac and only around 9 people and saw the orcas again in the same area and a grey whale.
  * Sea otters: they are common around Vancouver Island, specially in Tofino up north. I didn’t do much research about this because i wasn’t going to Vancouver Island but if you are going just check in I-naturalist you should be able to find reliable spots.
  * Black bears: easy around Whistler, specially early morning or the last couple hours driving around, you can try the golf course. We saw 7 black bears driving the Icefields Parkway between Jasper and Lake Louise,including a cinammon mama bear with two black babies in a tree by the road leading to the Fairmont hotel in Jasper. I think if you drive around at the right times of the day it is almost impossible that you won’t see them around Jasper.
  * Grizzly bears: you need to drive around the first couple of hours of the day and the last couple of hours before sunset. The most common spot to see them is between Baker Creek and Protection Mountain Campground in the Bow Valley Parkway (highway 1A) , the two biggest grizzlies in the area, The Boss and Split Lip go regularly to the rail tracks after the train leaves to eat the food that falls from the train. Other good spots to drive around and try your luck at those times of the day would be the Lake Minnewanka Loop (seasonal, check if open when you go), Kananaskis Golf Course or Peter Lougheed Provincial Park in Kananaskis (specially in the field next to the information centre), but they have even been seen a few times last month near the Banff sign so they could be anywhere.
  * Moose: Maligne Lake and Maligne lake Road, we only made it to the lake around 9:30 and was too late to see the moose in the lake but droppings were everywhere, you can hike the moose lake loop there too to try to see them too, while driving back to Jasper we had a mother with the baby just walk by our car very calmly around 10:30 but the earlier you can make it to Maligne Lake or in the moose lake loop , the better chances. On the way to Maligne Lake , you can stop by Medicine Lake, were American Pika and Hoary Marmots are common between the rocks, the park ranger told me other rest stops in that road had a load of them around too so you could check in i-naturalist for other spots along that road if you are interested in them, i was too early in spring to be around but when you are going is perfect timing.
  * Wolf: seen sometimes in the Bow Valley Parkway between Banff and Castle Junction, near Massive, but part of the road is closed seasonally to allow wildlife to cross, when i was there it was closed from 8 pm to 8 am and these days it is closed from 8 am to 8 pm so you should check up to date information on closures for the dates. The pack grew to 10 members last year and 3 of them were killed by farmers south of Kananaskis earlier this year. Also a few years ago they killed some of the wolves because they got habituated to humans giving them food. This is to say that see them is up to luck but they are definitively around.
  * Canadian Lynx: there is a family that are commonly seen in Lake Louise Ski Resort but that’s in the early months of the year not when you are going . There are sightings near Kelowna too but it was outside my route so you would need to do some research.
  * Bobcat: not uncommon in Lake Burnaby in Greater Vancouver. There are a lot in Calgary in the residential areas but i don’t know if you are going there. If you are going to Calgary, i can recommend you a few places to visit, there are a few good spots to try for american porcupine and american beaver there.
  * North american otters: seen regularly very very early morning in Jericho Pond in Vancouver, other places to try your luck are the west seawall in Stanley Park or the rivers in Colony Farm regional park in Coquitlam, you need luck for these since they cover a lot of kilometers daily.
  * Yellow-bellied marmot: a lot between the rocks on the side of the road before reaching the ferry terminal in Tsawwassen, Delta, south of Vancouver.
  * Mountain goats: they used to be common in the stop Goats and Glaciers in the Icefields Parkway but the locals think they all died in the wildfires last year. Another reliable spot is around the Columbia Icefield Skywalk, they like to hang out in the rocks below and adjacent to it.
  * Bighorn sheep: you will see them everywhere in Jasper and Banff.

  Seeing wildlife by yourself driving around it’s easy there but if you want to have a local driving you around finding wildlife or if you don’t have much time, I can recommend Mike Gere in Jasper, he runs a company called Jasper Photo Tours and he is great! He also spends part of the year in Churchill with the polar bears and have great stories to tell too.

  Let me know if you have further questions.
  Eduardo

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