Residents of a Burnaby, B.C., neighbourhood got an eyebrow-raising lesson Thursday on why it's a bad idea to leave garbage outside at the start of bear season.
Conservation officers were called into the neighbourhood after a mother bear and her two cubs climbed a tree in a resident's back yard.
The conservation officers spent most of Thursday evening trying to get them down, finally resorting to the use of a tranquilizer gun to remove the mother.
One resident said she wasn't surprised that the bears had taken refuge in the tree, because the mother had been spotted near an elementary school last Friday.
It took three conservation officers to haul the 350-pound mother bear into a trap after she tumbled from the tree. "She is a beautiful black bear, very healthy,'' said Conservation Officer Jack Trudgian.
Trudgian said the bears were attracted into the neighbourhood by the smell of garbage. All three are expected to be returned to the wild after they have been rescued and examined.
with a report by CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson
