Before local conservation officers drove the trailer trap off a Wilson Creek property on Tuesday morning, the mature black bear inside it seemed to have a sense of what lay in store. With a lowered head and rapid breathing, he occasionally snapped his jaws, exhibiting signs of stress related to being confined in a cage. Distraught neighbours watched the bear, who they'd been accustomed to seeing for years, being driven away to face certain death. Later that day, the 235-kilogram (517-pound) bear was destroyed. During the summer, three separate residences in the neighbourhood had been warned about leaving bear attractants within reach.
Due to the number of reports in the area, their increasing frequency and the fact the bear had been observed breaking into vehicles for food, the provincially established criteria for destroying the bear were reached, said conservation officer Dean Miller.
"A bear's destruction is always backed with a lot of experience and consideration," he said, adding the criteria to kill an animal are set by Ministry of Environment biologists, with some input from organizational experience.
Out of 497 bear calls on the lower Sunshine Coast so far in 2008, seven bears have been destroyed, while one sow starved to death near Tuwanek after consuming a stomachful of garbage. Eight orphaned cubs have been relocated to wildlife rehab centres.
Keeping food out of reach of bears is especially important in the fall, Miller said, as bears are now consuming up to 20,000 calories per day to prepare for the winter.
"Garbage could yield some high caloric content and birdfeeders as well," he said. "The bear's survival plan is to achieve as many calories as it can per day." Black bears in this part of B.C. may enter a den as early as mid-October or as late as December, Miller said.
"If we can get neighbourhoods to take responsibility as a whole and control attractants in the area, we can reduce the conflict," he said. Speaking with neighbours and lending a hand in picking fruit can greatly reduce the appeal of an area to a bear - an important facet for Wilson Creek, since many tree stands remain from an orchard that used to exist there. Businesses also have a role to play, added Wendy Gilbertson, a neighbourhood resident. She fingered one nearby business that's guilty of allowing trash to overflow from their outside bins. "What bothers me is that people have become so divorced from nature that it becomes an afterthought to keep garbage out of bears' reach," she said. "And bears are no longer relocated - they're shot. [The fall] is such a short time-frame - it's not as though you have to be this vigilant all year long."
Apples from nearby trees and garbage on the property were likely attractants to the bear in this case, added conservation officer Murray Smith, who issued three orders stemming from the incident. The resident will be required to pick up garbage on the property, build a secure enclosure for his garbage cans and sweep fruit trees clear of fruit. Failure to comply within one week will result in a $575 ticket for each order, Smith said.
Miller reminds the public to call the 24-hour RAPP (Report All Poachers and Polluters) line at 1-877-952-7277 if they see a bear loitering in the neighbourhood. People shouldn't think they're doing the bear a favour by not calling, he added - if attractants can be identified and eliminated sooner, there's a lesser chance a bear will need to be killed.
To get involved with a Bear Aware committee in your neighbourhood, call Bear Aware co-ordinator Ger-ald Shaffer at 604-885-6800.
