Going back over the 2016 editions of Coast Reporter, an oddity jumps out. There were more than 15 weeks when animal-related stories appeared in our front news section. In fact, there were two consecutive weeks in early fall when a single animal – a grizzly bear – hijacked the front page.
So, taking a departure from the usual year-end focus on all things all too human, let’s look at the year in animals.
Back in March, a letter writer from Gibsons lambasted the B.C. Conservation Officer Service (COS) over an incident the previous fall when the COS destroyed a black bear sow and her three cubs. The COS explained that the drastic step was taken after the bears had broken into homes in the Chaster and Pratt Road area over a period of 10 weeks. They had become dangerous. The cubs would have been spared, but there was no room at Critter Care in Langley, the only cub shelter in the region.
As the year progressed, events showed that the public ignored the letter writer’s exhortation to not report wildlife encounters to the COS, while the COS proved, repeatedly, that calling them was not necessarily imposing a “death sentence” on the animal.
The first incident was in late April, when a “wailing” black bear club was reported in Sechelt. The COS arrived at the scene and found the cub was stuck in a tree with one paw wedged between two branches. It had been there for at least one night. The mother bear fretted nearby. With a Mountie diverting the sow’s attention, the conservation officer brought down the cub, freed its paw and let it go back to mama.
In May, the COS took reporter Jacob Roberts up a forest service road to watch them release four of six orphaned black bear cubs that had done their time at Critter Care.
Later that month, the baby owl Creeker fell out of his nest near Day Road in Roberts Creek. A male barred owl with sad, curious eyes, Creeker was taken in by the Gibsons Wildlife Rehab for some TLC, then sent to another facility on the Lower Mainland. On Aug. 5, now able to fly and hunt for his own food, Creeker was set free in his old neighbourhood. About a dozen hard-core Creeker fans attended the release.
In early June, the COS issued a warning to Gibsons residents about a string of cougar sightings all over town. On July 23, a Hopkins Landing woman was shocked, and no doubt heartbroken, when a full-grown cougar snatched her pet cat from her back-porch steps and trotted away with the prize in its mouth. The big brute showed absolutely no fear despite being hit by a large flowerpot the woman threw at it.
Meanwhile, an epic journey spanning the entire length of the lower Sunshine Coast was taking place. Cara, a light brown and white terrier-lab mix, ran away from a Hopkins Landing vacation home in early July and was sighted a month later in Pender Harbour. The owners from Kelowna had mounted an intensive search involving a drone, trail cameras, a dog tracker, posters, volunteers and a Facebook page called “Where is Cara?” All the effort paid off when a Halfmoon Bay couple identified and contained Cara in their yard on Sept. 10. Sixty-nine days after she ran off, a tail-wagging Cara was reunited with her grateful owners.
Big animal news hit the front page in late August, when the COS confirmed the first recorded grizzly bear on the Sunshine Coast. To their huge disappointment, the young male – thought to have swam to Egmont from up Jervis Inlet – was shot and killed by a property owner after the grizzly attacked the man’s pigs.
Just over a month later, on Sept. 25, a second grizzly was spotted eating apples in a yard in West Sechelt. Schools were alerted and outdoor walks and bike clubs were cancelled. The COS set traps at the top of Norwest Bay Road where the grizzly had killed a black bear and partially buried it. On Sept. 29, the COS found the grizzly stuck in a leg snare. The bear charged at the COS truck, but the cable attached to the snare held. Weighing more than 700 pounds, the teenage grizzly was tranquilized and relocated off-Coast by helicopter.
In October, snow geese started falling from the sky. Exhausted from their 5,000-km flights from Russia to a sanctuary in Delta, the birds were landing in yards (including mine) and roadways. Three of the geese were taken to Gibsons Wildlife Rehab to fatten up and rest before a volunteer drove them to Delta, as flock birds are individually weak at geography.
The year in animals ended on a sad note with the discovery of an 18-year-old orca floating in Trail Bay on Dec. 20. J34, or DoubleStuf, was one of about 80 endangered southern resident killer whales, so it was sad news indeed. However, it was also uplifting to see the cooperation between the Coast Guard, Fisheries and shíshálh Nation in recovering the whale’s carcass and the importance all parties gave to the death of this noble creature.
It is our good fortune on the Sunshine Coast to have such perfect and interesting neighbours.
