A series of bear sightings in Surrey’s Tynehead Park has officials issuing a warning to nearby residents, but conservation officers say they aren’t jumping into action just yet.
A photo of a small black bear climbing up on to one resident’s hot tub is pretty cute – but also represents a big problem, according to B.C. Conservation Officer Dave Cox.
“This animal is getting into non-natural attractants and non-natural food courses,” he said. “It’s hanging out in Tynehead Regional Park and getting opportunistic and getting into garbage when it can.”
Ted, a nearby resident, said he’s seen the little bear lumbering around Tynehead Park – but he was more surprised to see a much larger bear in his yard just a few days ago.
“He kinda scared me a little,” he said. “He was on all fours picking off berries on the top branches, and I’m backing up fairly quick and heading for the house, because he was big enough that he could’ve hurt me a lot.”
He estimated the big bear was about three or four years old and between 300 to 400 pounds.
“You're not set for walking out to your back yard and walking out of your shed and finding him 45 feet away from you.”
Despite the string of sightings and new signs warning people to watch for bears in Tynehead Park, conservation officers aren’t aggressively attempting to catch the hot-tub cub because it hasn’t been much of a problem.
“Relocation is not really an option that we like to deal with,” Cox said. “It’s not very humane on the animal. It’s a last resort technique we’ll visit if we need to.”
The sightings are just the latest in a string of bear encounters around the Lower Mainland in the last few months.
In June, a wandering black bear tore apart a vehicle in West Vancouver, ripping off both side mirrors and covering the car in claw marks and dents.
Officers speculated the bear was probably trying to get at food left inside.
Days before, an aggressive black bear reportedly mauled a Surrey man’s goat to death and attacked a llama. The man fired a shot at the bear hitting it in the shoulder and causing it to retreat.
That bear was never found, but conservation officers set a trap and caught an entirely different bear.
Despite that, Cox said there hasn’t been an increase in the number of bear sightings this year.
“This time of the year we're about average with our calls in previous years compared to this year," he said.
He urged people to keep garbage and other attractants away from places bears can get at them.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Penny Daflos
