Bear Matters BC

B.C. grizzly breaks out of ‘Fort Knox’
Last Updated: Monday, June 26, 2006 | 3:03 PM MT
CBC News
Boo, the young grizzly that escaped from a refuge in southeastern B.C. three weeks ago, has busted loose again — this time by knocking down a huge steel door, storming two electrical fences and climbing a four-metre barrier.

The four-year-old captured hearts across the country with reports of his first escape on June 5 from the Kicking Horse Resort near Golden. That time, he dug his way under a fence after catching the scent of a wild female bear.

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June 22, 2006

CANMORE, Alberta — In the 1990s, Canmore was having all sorts of problems with bears arriving to pick through garbage cans. In response, the municipality created 60 animal-proof bins and instituted a curb-side pickup system. Still, that wasn’t enough, so it ended the curb-side collection and added more animal-proof containers, now 176 altogether. A majority have been paid for by developers and found in new subdivisions.
At $2 million, the containers, concrete bases and enclosures were expensive. But the number of habituated bears has dropped, town officials tell the Rocky Mountain Outlook. If some problems remain, Canmore’s animal-proofing system seems among the best around, which is why both Whistler and Revelstoke have studied it.

Meanwhile, Canmore is studying Banff’s year-old experiment. There, garbage is being collected and composted along with solid waste from the wastewater treatment facility.

It’s just the simple bear necessities of Boo’s love life
DAWN WALTON

From Saturday’s Globe and Mail

It was a commendable escape by any measure: Patiently wait until the staff calls it a day; dig a tunnel under a fence; then, make a dash for love.

But after 19 days on the lam, Boo, a four-and-a-half-year-old grizzly bear that made a bid for freedom after catching the whiff of a sow, is back behind his electric fence at a refuge in British Columbia.

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Councillors back away from earlier stance after complaints

By Brooke Larsen - The Now Coquitlam Staff Reporter

Growls from residents have Coquitlam council stepping back from bylaw changes designed to protect bears. Council voted unanimously Monday to defer changes to its garbage bylaw, a week after giving the same changes preliminary approval at a committee meeting.

According to a staff report, the bylaw would forbid residents from putting garbage out before 5 a.m. on collection day.

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MAMA BEAR HAS TWINS!

by Mick Webb Published in North Shore News June 25, 2006

As the incessant January rains drifted down through the lush canopy of the North Shore forests, the newborn bear cubs snuggled against their mother’s warm belly. Weighing less than a pound each, the brother and sister are blind, can barely crawl and have only a light covering of fur. At four years of age and weighing one hundred and seventy-six pounds, their mother is average for this her first litter.

Their home is a shallow scraping in the soft peaty earth beneath an old fallen cedar. The rotting bulk of the huge trunk provides good protection from the falling rain and a small degree of comfort is afforded by the floor’s layer of leaves and twigs that the mother has carefully dragged in and spread around. Although no warmer than the surrounding dripping forest, this is a typical winter den of the Black bear. Here the mother will nurse her helpless young charges through the wet chill of the North Shore winter until, with the advent of spring, mother and cubs will venture out into the awakening forest. Depending upon how much milk their mother has produced, the cubs will now weigh between five and ten pounds each.

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British Columbia news
                       
Friday, Jun 16, 2006
Runaway grizzly bear returns ‘home’
 

(CBC) - Boo, the young male grizzly bear who escaped from his 22-acre enclosure at the Kicking Horse Grizzly Bear Refuge at a resort near Golden earlier this month, has been spotted - back at the resort.
 

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Press Release  June 15, 2006 Northern Lights Wildlife Rehabilitation Society –Smithers, BC  Orphan 4 1/2mos old Black Bear Cub ‘Kira’ found wandering by a road 1 1/2hrs outside of Kamloops   Kira was sighted outside Kamloops and after a couple of days picked up by a member of the public after no mother bear responded to the cub’s cries. Kira was extremely underweight but otherwise in good condition having been born in February this year.   A legal spring bear hunt ends TODAY in most regions in BC and will reopen again in Sept. Spring bear hunting can result in mothers being shot leaving tiny cubs high up in trees to fend for themselves at too young an age. In 2001 Ontario cancelled the Spring Bear Hunt for humane reasons. 

Angelika said yesterday “I could not believe it but EVERYBODY came through. The gov’t Wildlife fellow stayed after work and gave me his home number if I needed him again. The gov’t wildlife vet examined the cub after hours. The people that rescued the cub drove her in from 1 1/2 hours  away. The vet is taking her to the airlines at 6 am tomorrow and she will arrive at 11am in Smithers. The airlines is transporting the cub free of charge.”  So today now Kira has a home until next Spring when she will be released back into the Kamloops region away from people. The likelihood of her ever coming near people once put into a wilderness region is the same as a wild bear-very unlikely. She will join atleast 5 other cubs at shelter.  Northern Lights Wildlife Rehab Centre receives no government funding and has only been a non-profit society for 3 years though has saved hundred of animals, including bears, deer, moose, cougar, wolves, birds etc… over the last 15yrs. 

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Electricity meets wildlife at workshop
By PERRY BACKUS of the Missoulian
A few joules might just be what it takes to save a bear’s life.
With a little bit of knowledge, some joules can also give a homeowner, a rancher or a beekeeper some peace of mind from roaming wildlife.