Juniper and Beari Cub

 

By David Burke, Whistler Question, July 19, 2007 A local bear-welfare advocate says she disagrees with conservation officers’ decision last week to shoot and kill a seven-month-old bear cub that, along with its mother, was entering homes to access food.  

Sylvia Dolson, executive director of the Whistler-based Get Bear Smart Society, on Monday (July 16) said last Thursday’s (July 12) shooting of the cub in Whistler Cay is “unacceptable both morally and ethically, scientifically unjustified and unnecessary.”  Dolson said Ministry of Environment (MOE) policy is to trap cubs that are less than a year old and send them to rehabilitation centres. For that reason, she said she’s writing to Environment Minister Barry Penner seeking an investigation into the shooting of the Whistler cub and of “at least a dozen” other cubs in B.C.  

Kate Thompson, Ministry of Environment spokesperson, said ministry policy is to send orphaned cubs to rehab whenever possible, but it’s not a blanket policy that applies in all cases.  “There are all kinds of criteria that have to be taken into account,” Thompson said. “In this case it was a sow and cub, completely habituated with human food, with attractants.”  

Dave Jevons of the B.C. Conservation Officer Service said the mother and cub, which was born this year, were deemed a public safety threat and killed outside a home they had invaded in Whistler Cay. Jevons said it was the fifth home they had invaded in the same area in the previous few days.  Officers also killed an older female bear that had become aggressive toward humans on Wednesday (July 11) near the Re-Use-It Centre in Function Junction, Jevons said. Last week’s deaths brought this year’s total number of bears killed in Whistler to six. A total of nine were killed in Whistler in 2006.  

Jevons admitted it’s unusual for officers to kill a cub, especially such a young one, but said he felt it was necessary under the circumstances.  “If it’s a conflict bear, then it’s not typically one that would go to rehabilitation,” Jevons said. “Generally, the ones that go to rehab are orphaned or abandoned cubs. In this situation, it would have been almost impossible to safely tranquilize the cub anyway.  

“The cub had been demonstrating inappropriate behaviour. It had approached people, obviously trained by its mother, and it had gone into houses.  “A lot of factors go into that decision and it’s certainly not taken lightly.”  

Dolson disagreed with the decision, citing a recent research paper on the subject.  “The paper suggests that there is no data that indicates that the conflict behaviour of the mother has any influence on the ultimate probability that a cub will exhibit conflict behaviour,” Dolson said in an email. “It is likely dictated by other factors than just the mother’s behaviour.”  

Dolson said in an interview that the mother, whom she named Juniper, was the daughter of Jeanie, a female that is at least 20 years old and spends most of its time on Whistler Mountain. Early this year Juniper, who was only three years old, gave birth to Beari, becoming one of the youngest females to give birth in the Whistler area.  Dolson wept when she was speaking about the shooting on Monday.  

“I’m still in shock,” she said. “Obviously I’m saddened by the recent killings. Killing a 10-pound, seven-month-old cub is unacceptable both morally and ethically. It’s scientifically unjustified and unnecessary.  “The conservation officers had no right to take the life of a young cub that’s done nothing wrong. I wish she was still nursing from her mother,” she said, beginning to cry. “She paid for her mother’s behaviour with her life.  

“He’s (Jevons) suggesting that the cub will become a conflict animal, but we don’t know that and she should have been given a chance.”  Jevons said the pair had entered at least five residences in the Whistler Cay area, and had taken food from golf carts and golfers’ bags on the Whistler Golf Club course earlier in the day.  

In the case of the last home, they had entered at least twice, in one instance transporting food they found outside the home to eat it.  He said the same pair had reportedly entered the garage of another home in the Whistler Cay area that “was described to me as being knee-deep in garbage. It frustrates me that people mismanage garbage that way.”  

Jevons said the bear that was shot on Wednesday, July 11, in Function Junction was an older female that reportedly had bluff-charged several people and acted aggressively toward others.  He said the bear, which he estimated at more than 20 years old, had several teeth missing. It had been trapped, ear-tagged and given a “hard” release — i.e. hazed using loud noisemakers and perhaps even chased by dogs as it was released — on June 30, Jevons said.  

“It had entered into five separate businesses and one camper, totalling about 12 times, some of them obviously multiple occasions, and there had been a number of reports of her bluff-charging people on the trails and reports that she was not allowing people to get back in their cars,” he said.  Added Jevons, “I would say the Function Junction bear, and the sow and cub, were a significant percentage of our calls over the past month.”  

To report a bear sighting or potential conflict situation, please call (604) 905-BEAR (2327) or 1-877-952-7277.   

   

Sylvia Dolson 

Executive Director, 

Get Bear Smart Society 

204-3300 Ptarmigan Place

 

Whistler, BC  V0N 1B3 

Phone/Fax: 604-905-4209 

www.bearsmart.com 

“Coexisting with Bears”