By Lara Gerrits The Tri-City News
Dec 24 2006

A bear sow and her two cubs were tranquilized, then killed, Thursday by conservation officers in Port Coquitlam.

Because the bears — captured near Hyde Creek between Coast Meridian Road and Cedar Drive after residents complained of their proximity to a daycare — were so habituated and had been feeding off bird feeders and garbage for quite sometime, they had to be relocated or killed.

(An environment ministry spokesperson said there were reports an area resident had been feeding the bears.)

Although the first option seems more humane, it’s quite the opposite, said Coquitlam Bear Aware co-ordinator Drake Stephens, who attended the scene but left before provincial conservation officers decided what to do with the animals.

“It’s very hard for a bear to survive being dropped into a harsh winter, they’d have to go into denning immediately and the den sites would be covered with snow,” he said.

It’s impossible to reverse the animal’s habituation, he added, because the sow has “done nothing but teach her cubs to seek out food in people’s backyard” — a problem that would worsen come next year.

He did not say what he thinks should have been done.

Stephens said this should serve as a reminder to people to make sure garbage is properly stored and inaccessible to bears and other wildlife, and is not put out on the curb until the morning of its collection.

Kate Thompson, spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Environment, said relocation is usually inadvisable come winter.

“Most of the places they’d relocate them to at this point would be snowed in,” she said.

That means the bears would starve to death and “die slow, painful deaths,” according to Barb Murray of North Vancouver-based Bear Matters BC.

lgerrits@tricitynews.com

——————————————————————————–

© Copyright 2006 The Tri-City News