By David Burke, Whistler Question, July 27, 2006

Officers trying to trap home invader in Tapley’s area

Conservation officers last week shot and killed an emaciated black bear that had become a danger to picnickers and other users of Lost Lake Park.

The five- to six-year-old bear “should have weighed in the 350- to 400-pound range and our estimate is that it weighed about 100 pounds,” Rob Groeger of the Conservation Officer Service said on Tuesday (July 25).

The bear had been licking food off of picnic tables, tried to grab food off of a barbecue with about a dozen people standing around and even took a woman’s lunch away from her, Groeger said.

Officials had “three or four times” tried to dissuade the bear from approaching people without success, Groeger said. After consulting the provincial biologist, the decision was made to destroy it. It was shot last Thursday (July 20) in Lost Lake Park. It was the third bear destroyed by conservation officers in Whistler this year.

“Due to its poor health — you could see its ribs and backbone, and its overall poor condition — we felt it was best to put this bear down by means of humane destruction,” Groeger said. “It was starting to use up its own muscle mass trying to survive.”

Officials have set traps in the Tapley’s Farm area for a bear believed responsible for recent home invasions in Whistler Cay and Barnfield. The bear has more than once tried to enter through open windows, pulling out window screens. On Tuesday, it tried to enter a home while people were present, Groeger said.

Groeger said he’s at a loss to explain the number of home invasions by bears this year. “I can only surmise that the berry crop this year is average to below average, with some spots being fair,” he said. To report a bear sighting, please call 1-877-952-7277 and (604) 905-BEAR (2327).