UPDATE: Sunshine Coast conservation officers reported Thursday afternoon that they had captured the West Sechelt grizzly and were in the process of relocating it by helicopter. More updates to come.
A grizzly bear spotted in West Sechelt avoided capture and may have moved on to another part of the Sunshine Coast, Sgt. Dean Miller of the Conservation Officer Service (COS) told Coast Reporter Wednesday.
The grizzly was originally spotted eating apples in a yard in West Sechelt and was filmed by resident Eliza Yates on Sunday, Sept. 25. By Monday the COS was involved, actively trying to capture the animal and relocate it.
West Sechelt Elementary and Chatelech Secondary schools were alerted and outdoor walks and bike clubs were cancelled.
Two traps were set at the end of Norwest Bay Road in West Sechelt where the grizzly had killed a black bear and partially buried it to return later to eat, Miller said.
On Monday night a black bear was accidentally caught in one of the traps and the COS released it Tuesday morning. Miller said he then set up leg snares around the traps in the hopes of catching the grizzly if it returned to the area.
By Wednesday morning the traps remained empty and sightings of the grizzly had tapered off, causing Miller to suspect the bear had moved to another location.
“It is possible it may show up in another area of the Coast,” Miller said, adding the community should report any future sightings to the RAPP line at 1-877-952-7277.
The Sunshine Coast is known for black bears, but grizzly sightings are a new occurrence. The first confirmed grizzly sighting on the Coast was Aug. 19 in Egmont. That grizzly bear was shot by a property owner protecting his livestock.
This is the second grizzly sighting on the Coast and Miller said both bears likely swam here from another location, although he’s not sure exactly where they came from.
He noted two grizzly bears were spotted in Powell River this summer, and there have been reports of grizzlies swimming from the mainland to places like Cormorant Island near Alert Bay.
“In speaking with Tony Hamilton, our biologist, this is obviously a case of bears being displaced from their home ranges,” Miller said.
“It could be threatened food supply. It could be a growing population of bears where the younger males are getting kicked out of their home range by the more dominant bears, and so they’re swimming and trying to find new territory.”
He said grizzly bears have always been known to live nearby, but they have historically stayed away from the Sunshine Coast.
“But now, for some reason, again I can’t say what it is, but these bears are showing up,” Miller said, noting the discovery of grizzlies on the Coast is “pretty significant.”
Yates was surprised and somewhat frightened to find a grizzly bear eating apples from a tree in a neighbour’s yard in West Sechelt on Sept. 25.
Her dog Andy is skilled at treeing bears and when she heard him barking incessantly at the end of her driveway she figured he had treed a bear and went down, camera in hand, to get some photos and call the dog off.
She was surprised to see the bear eating apples from a tree while her 80-pound great Pyrenees/Lab cross circled and continued to bark. The bear was unfazed and Yates started filming.
It took a little while for her to realize the bear was different from the usual black bears seen in the area.
“I took four one-minute videos and pictures in between and by the time I got near the end of doing all that and was just watching the bear, I thought: ‘That doesn’t look like a black bear at all,’” Yates said.
“So I delicately walked back up the driveway – and we’ve got a long driveway – so when I was halfway I started running.”
Yates posted one of the videos she took to a local wildlife spotting Facebook page and it instantly gained a lot of attention. By Wednesday the video had been shared more than 900 times.
She emailed photos and video to the COS as well, and officers confirmed it was a male grizzly caught on film.
At one point it was thought the grizzly may have been a female with a cub in a nearby tree, but the COS determined the “cub” was actually a black bear, likely hiding from the grizzly munching on apples below.
Grizzlies are much larger than black bears with maximum weights of over 1,100 pounds recorded. Adult black bears can reach top weights of around 550 pounds.
Other features that distinguish a grizzly bear from a black bear include a pronounced shoulder hump, longer claws, a rounder face and rounded, furry ears. Grizzly bear fur colour can vary from blond to almost black, but in B.C. most are light to dark brown in colour.
Miller said grizzly bears are definitely more powerful than black bears but added, “That doesn’t make them more fierce.”
He said grizzly attacks on humans are actually more rare than black bear attacks.
If you see a grizzly, do not approach it, remain calm, and slowly back away. If you surprise a grizzly and it attacks, play dead and do not move until the animal has left the area.
However, if a grizzly is stalking you and then attacks, do not play dead. Try to escape to a secure place (car or building) or climb a tree, as adult grizzly bears are poor climbers. If you have no other option, try to intimidate the bear with deterrents or weapons such as tree branches or rocks.
Miller said it’s also a good idea to keep bear spray handy and know how to properly use it in case of emergency.
Find out more about staying safe around grizzly bears at www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/misc/bears/bearsaf.html
Wildsafe BC also recommends getting rid of all bear attractants to keep bears at bay. Residents should pick all fruit at this time of year, keep garbage inside until pick-up day, turn compost regularly, keep all pet food inside, store bird feeders inside for the winter and keep barbecues grease-free.
For help with picking fruit, residents can email fruittreeproject@onestraw.ca or call 604-989-2853.
