Deadly attacks involving wild animals are extremely rare in British Columbia, but conservation officers still need to know how to handle them.
B.C.'s Conservation Officer Service gave CTV News an inside look at how its members prepare for a worst case scenario.
"What we're trying to do with the officers who are in the training is give them the tools necessary for them to safely respond," COS Sgt. Kevin Van Damme said Thursday.
"And provide them a good plan for when they get to the site and move forward. They're safe, and then they can ensure that the community's safe."
Guns out, entering the scene in tactical formation, officers acted as though they'd been called in to investigate reports of a missing person.
"When they arrived on scene, scenario RCMP saw a black bear and destroyed that black bear," officer Joel Kline said.
Trainers used the body of a real bear that was killed in traffic to make the simulation more realistic.
Conservation officers then find the missing person – a mannequin under a pile of leaves – and determine the way it's buried is indicative of an animal feeding on it.
"We want to make it as realistic as possible… Even having our mannequins as realistic as they are, it helps and prepares them to respond to these types of incidences," Van Damme said.
"At times, a bear may attack a person with the motivation of eating a person, and when we get to those situations it's extremely dangerous."
Most of the officers will never encounter a scene like the simulation, but if they do, the hope is that they'll be ready.
Ten officers from Alberta and 20 from B.C. were being trained in Chilliwack Thursday by eight instructors based on the west coast. The trainers travel across North America teaching a course on predator response.
"Next month we're going down to Nevada and we're going to teach 100 first responders how to do the same things we're doing here," Van Damme said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Shannon Paterson
