B.C. conservation officers warn that a lack of berries and salmon could mean more interactions between humans and bears this year, which could result in bruins being destroyed.
The service has received an unprecedented spike in the number of calls about bears in residential neighbourhoods, and says the problem may soon become much worse.
Officials believe an early but plentiful berry season kept most bears in the mountains this summer, but now the food supply is drying up. Coupled with low salmon returns, it’s pushing bruins to scavenge in urban areas.
Black bears have been popping up all over Metro Vancouver in the past several weeks in a search for food. There have been so many sightings in Maple Ridge that officers are posting warning tape and baiting bear traps to catch the hungry critters before they develop a taste for garbage.
"We're starting to see some of those interactions now increasing, where we have to interject,” said Sgt. Todd Hunter of the B.C. Conservation Service.
Hunter said the situation is serious because often times the bears will have to be euthanized if they become habituated to humans, and feasting on their food and garbage.
“We want them to go about naturally, going after their natural food sources, and then going off into their long torpor-cycle,” he said.
As hibernation approaches adult black bears need to eat 10 times what an average person eats each day in order to survive the winter.
Conservation officers don’t want that food to be from humans so they are asking area residents to better safeguard garbage, tree fruit, gardens and birdseed.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Peter Grainger
