The biologists haven’t figured out exactly why, but grizzly bears are migrating to coastal areas of the province that have historically been outside their territory – and the lower Sunshine Coast has become one of their destinations. The first sighting, in Egmont on Aug. 19, ended when a farmer shot and killed the young male that was attacking his pigs. The second was last weekend in West Sechelt, and at press time that bear remained at large, having at some point killed and partially buried a black bear at the top of Norwest Bay Road.
The video shot last Sunday by West Sechelt resident Eliza Yates shows a healthy male grizzly deeply preoccupied with eating apples under a tree, utterly indifferent to the 80-pound dog barking around it. When Yates realized that this was not your average bear, she stopped recording, carefully backed away and then ran up her driveway. As Muddy Waters said when he heard Chuck Berry, “That’s something new here.”
What the arrival of this new predator means for Coast residents is that it’s time to double down on managing attractants – ripe and fallen fruit, household garbage, compost, pet food and bird feeders. We already have black bears, cougars, bobcats, coyotes and pesky raccoons. Now, with grizzlies added to the list, the whole Coast has to adopt a zero-tolerance attitude toward attractants. Maybe this will be the wakeup call for some diehards to stop feeding the deer and drawing prey into residential neighbourhoods.
For hikers, mountain bikers, loggers and others who travel in the bush, going in larger groups is one way to reduce risk, and carrying bear spray is probably a wise choice.
Experts tell us that grizzly bear attacks on humans are less common than black bear attacks, but grizzlies do have a history of eating people that hasn’t gone unnoticed. Less than a decade ago in Alberta’s west country, two full-grown men were killed by grizzlies in separate attacks near Sundre that were only about 10 months apart. It’s rare, but it can happen, so awareness is important.
Conservation officers were trying this week to trap the West Sechelt grizzly and relocate it. It’s a risky job and we wish them success. The public can help by calling in sightings and taking every precaution to make the Sunshine Coast as uninviting as possible to these not-always-gentle giants.
