Hungry Bears On The Move

There has been over 20-thousand human-wildlife conflicts reported to BC Conservation officers this year.

The majority of those — about 14-thousand have involved blacks bear — of which 469 have been destroyed this year.

Mike Badry, a biologist and human-wildlife conflict manager from the Environment Ministry says the spring and early summer were very busy for conflicts.

“But fortunately the late summer and fall has been relatively quiet. And when you look at it from the year as a whole, it’s pretty average compared to previous years,” says Badry.

Badry says bears are highly motivated to find food at this time of year, so people are asked to remove any possible food sources in their yards like compost, garbage or fruit trees.

“These bears are trying to put on weight for denning over the winter.”

Badry says conservation officers have to gauge the risk to public safety when deciding what to do with a bear in conflict with people.

He says long distance relocation of bears is not usually a viable option.

“They just don’t tend to be very successful. Those animals don’t know what food sources are available or at this time of year, they won’t know what den sites are available, so it’s very stressful for the animal. Most of the time they end up back in conflict,” says Badry.

The biologist says some relocated bears starve to death or getting hit on highways.

Twenty-seven grizzly bears have been put-down by conservation officers in BC this year after conflicts with human.