Haida Gwaii is sometimes called the Galapagos of the North, and the nickname is more than tourist-brochure enthusiasm. Isolated from the mainland by the wide, stormy waters of Hecate Strait since the last ice age, the archipelago has evolved its own distinct animals and hosts globally significant colonies of nesting seabirds. It is also a place of striking absences, where familiar mainland predators simply never arrived. For a naturalist, that combination of endemic life, huge bird numbers, and an unusual food web makes the islands one of the most rewarding wildlife destinations on the Pacific coast.
The islands’ unusual mammals
The animal most visitors hope to see is the Haida Gwaii black bear, a subspecies found only here. It is the largest black bear in North America, with a noticeably bigger skull and heavier molars than its mainland relatives, adaptations for crushing the shellfish, crabs, and intertidal food it forages along the shoreline at low tide. Watching a bear turn over rocks on a beach at dusk is a common and memorable sight, particularly along quieter stretches of Graham Island.
Other native mammals also diverged into island forms, including a distinct pine marten, an ermine, and a dusky shrew. Just as telling is what is missing. There are no wolves, no grizzlies, no cougars, and no moose that walked here on their own. That absence of large predators shaped everything else, including the behaviour of the bears and the vulnerability of ground-nesting birds.
Some of the most consequential animals, unfortunately, were brought by people. Sitka black-tailed deer, introduced more than a century ago, exploded without predators and have stripped the forest understory bare across much of the islands, a slow ecological disaster you can read in the browse line of the woods. Introduced raccoons and rats prey heavily on seabird eggs and chicks, which is why intensive rat-eradication projects have been carried out on several small islands to give the burrow-nesting birds a chance to recover.
Seabirds and the significance of the colonies
The offshore islets of Haida Gwaii are one of the great seabird strongholds of the North Pacific. Millions of birds nest here, many in burrows they dig into the soft forest soil of predator-free islands. The archipelago supports a very large share of the world’s breeding Ancient Murrelets, a small seabird whose chicks famously scramble to the sea within days of hatching, calling to their parents in the dark.
Species a keen birder can hope to encounter include:
- Ancient Murrelet and Cassin’s Auklet, both burrow-nesting and present in enormous numbers on protected islets.
- Rhinoceros Auklet and Tufted Puffin, seen offshore and around nesting colonies in summer.
- Fork-tailed and Leach’s Storm-Petrels, nocturnal at their burrows and rarely seen ashore.
- Bald Eagles in exceptional density, along with the powerful Peale’s subspecies of Peregrine Falcon that preys on the seabird flocks.
Because so many of these birds nest in burrows on remote islands, the best way to appreciate the colonies is from the water on a boat trip, ideally one that respects the buffer distances that keep nesting birds from being disturbed.
Birding you can reach by car
Not all of the best wildlife watching requires a boat. Graham Island’s road network gives access to several excellent spots:
- Delkatla Wildlife Sanctuary at Masset, a tidal wetland with boardwalks and a viewing tower, is the single best road-accessible birding site. Look for Sandhill Cranes, waterfowl, and large numbers of migrating shorebirds in spring and fall.
- Rose Spit, the long sand point at the northeast tip of the island within Naikoon Provincial Park, is a magnet for shorebirds and raptors and a fine place to scan the sea.
- The Tlell River estuary and the surrounding meadows are good for cranes, waterfowl, and passerines.
- Around Sandspit on Moresby Island, the gravel spits and shoreline draw impressive numbers of migrating shorebirds and are a favourite of visiting birders.
Endemic land birds are worth listening for too, including a Haida Gwaii subspecies of the Northern Saw-whet Owl and distinctive island forms of several songbirds.
The marine edge
The waters around the islands are as productive as the land. Humpback whales, once nearly wiped out by whaling, are increasingly seen offshore in summer, and Gray Whales pass close to shore during their spring migration. Killer whales cruise the coast, and Steller Sea Lions crowd rocky haul-outs, their roaring audible long before you see them. Harbour seals are everywhere along the shore.
One notable gap tells its own history: sea otters, hunted to local extinction during the maritime fur trade of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, are still largely absent, appearing only occasionally. Their loss reshaped the nearshore ecosystem, and their possible return is watched with great interest. In spring, the herring spawn turns bays milky and draws a feeding frenzy of birds, sea lions, and whales, one of the best times to witness the sheer abundance these waters can hold.
Watching without doing harm
With so much fragile, ground-nesting and shoreline life, how you watch matters. A few principles keep your visit from becoming a disturbance:
- Keep well back from bears feeding on beaches; never position yourself between a bear and the forest or the water.
- Do not land on seabird islets during nesting season, and let boat operators maintain safe distances from colonies and haul-outs.
- Carry all food securely and never feed wildlife, which teaches bears and other animals to associate people with a meal.
- Stay on trails and boardwalks in sensitive wetlands such as Delkatla.
Bring good binoculars, patience, and rain gear, because the temperate rainforest weather that makes these islands so lush also means grey, damp days are part of the deal. Slow down, watch the tide line and the treetops, and Haida Gwaii will show you a version of coastal wildlife that exists nowhere else in quite the same form.