Bears, Whales & Megafauna

Canada's wildlife is what Europeans can only dream of — megafauna in the wild that has been extinct in Europe for centuries.

🐻 Bears

Canada is home to about 25,000 grizzly bears (mainly BC and Alberta) and 380,000 black bears (nationwide). Then there are the polar bears — Churchill in Manitoba is the "Polar Bear Capital of the World," where the animals come every fall (October/November) to wait for the sea ice to freeze. Tundra Buggy tours (from 400 CAD/day) bring you eye-to-eye with the largest land predators on Earth. The rare Kermode Bear (Spirit Bear) — a white black bear found only here — lives in the Great Bear Rainforest in BC.

🐋 Whales

Canada is one of the best countries in the world for whale watching:

• East Coast (Tadoussac, Québec): Belugas, blue whales, humpback whales, fin whales — May to October
• West Coast (Vancouver Island, Tofino): Gray whales (March–April on migration), orcas (May–October), humpback whales
• Atlantic (Newfoundland, Bay of Fundy): Humpback whales, fin whales, North Atlantic right whales (one of the rarest whale species in the world)

🦌 Other Megafauna

• Moose: Weighing up to 700 kg, with antler spans of 1.8 meters. Common in Algonquin Park, Cape Breton, and the Rockies. Be cautious on the roads — a collision with a moose is almost always fatal.
• Elk: Ubiquitous in the Rockies, often found in the towns of Banff and Jasper.
• Bison: Wild bison herds have been reintroduced in Elk Island National Park near Edmonton and in Grasslands National Park (Saskatchewan).
• Wolves: Mainly in BC, Alberta, and Ontario. Algonquin Park organizes "Public Wolf Howls" in August.