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After years of actively working towards making Whistler visitors and residents more bear smart, as well as taking steps to make the town more bear proof, this week Whistler was recognized by the provincial government as one of only four "Bear Smart" communities in B.C.
Joining Squamish and Kamloops, the first two communities accepted into the program in 2009, Whistler and Lions Bay received the designation from B.C.'s Minister of Environment Terry Lake on Thursday (Sept. 29).
CALGARY - Some of the world's foremost bear experts are looking at new ways to prevent grizzlies from getting killed along railway tracks inside Banff National Park.
A dozen bears have been killed and a half dozen cubs orphaned in the last decade and experts estimate there are now only between 45 and 60 grizzlies left in the park.
Last year, Alberta reclassified the species as threatened because of rapidly dwindling numbers.
Local black bear researchers are predicting a wave of increased bear activity in the Village and valley this fall due to the worst berry crop Whistler has seen in almost two decades.
Experts are pleading with locals to be extra careful by safely disposing of garbage, not having bird feeders, keeping dog food inside and keeping areas around the house clean.
For the past three years Bear No. 8's behaviour was becoming increasingly worrisome.
It sprinted after cyclists, charged dog walkers and held a Canadian Pacific train hostage when it stood its ground on a grain car and wouldn't let workers near.
On Monday, the six-year-old male grizzly bear stalked two people in Banff National Park, chasing them up a tree, where they sat in fear and panic for two hours.
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Bear No. 646 was eventually tracked to a location 1.7 miles southwest of the trapping/mauling site. It was shot dead from a helicopter by U.S. Wildlife Services at 7:15 a.m. on June 19.
After the incident at Kitty Creek, all bear research trapping operations were halted for 50 days until new protocol was established by now-retired IGBST head Chuck Schwartz. Even with the layoff, officials managed to capture a record 95 grizzlies in 2010, 75 of those for bad behavior. In all, 295 grizzly-human conflicts were reported in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), the most since record-keeping began in 1992.
BELLA COOLA - Recent flooding along B.C.'s Central Coast has been devastating, destroying homes and roads, but there are much wider implications that are only now becoming clearer.
The floods wiped out much of the salmon spawn in Bella Coola. It is the best source of food for local grizzly bears trying to fatten up for the winter.
Yosemite National Park - A video of a pair of adorable bear cubs who delighted visitors at Yosemite National Park, where they were filmed wrestling in the middle of the road, has gone viral receiving hundreds of thousands of views in just a few days.According to the the video description the mother bear and her cubs were filmed by park visitors who were returning from a day hike at Hetch Hetchy, a popular destination for hikers in the California national forest.
Gallatin County District Judge Mike Salvagni on Monday handed an Alaskan fishing guide a 20-year prison sentence, suspending all 20 years, for poaching elk, deer and antelope over several years. The judge also ordered Michael P. Duby, 37, to pay $15,500 in fines and restitution.
Duby pleaded no contest in April to four felony charges of illegal possession of game animals, saying he was "unable to admit" to any of the charges because federal charges are pending and a guilty plea could incriminate him.
For more than two decades, Simon Jackson's life has centred on 400 bears. When he was 7, he saw his first wild bear, a Kodiak, while on a camping trip with his parents. The camping trip ignited Mr. Jackson's interest in bears and at the age of 13 he began his 16-year campaign to save the spirit bear, also known as the Kermode bear, named after Frank Kermode, former director of the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria.
Workers at a northern Alberta oil site are outraged after a wildlife officer shot and killed a mother black bear and her three cubs for entering their camp's living area.
They claim camp managers are negligent for allowing garbage and food to be stored outside and refusing to build a fence around the compound.
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Researchers are planning to collect grizzly bear fur samples snagged on barbed wire as part of a three-year study in northern Idaho and northwestern Montana.
The study, which begins next summer, should give a more precise estimate of the number of grizzlies in the 2.4-million acre Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem, said Kate Kendall, a U.S. Geological Service scientist at Glacier National Park.
BILLINGS, Mont. -- A hunter attacked by a wounded grizzly in a Montana forest was not killed by the bear, as originally thought, but by a gunshot fired by a hunting buddy trying to save him, authorities say.
An autopsy determined that Steve Stevenson, 39, of Winnemucca, Nev., died of a single gunshot to the chest, Lincoln County Sheriff Roby Bowe said Friday.
The shot was fired by Ty Bell, 20, also of Winnemucca, as he attempted to stop the bear's attack. No charges are expected, Bowe said.
BOISE, Idaho - An Idaho elk hunter who apparently stumbled across a bear's resting spot Saturday was hospitalized after the animal bit him and broke his right arm, officials said.
Richard Paini, 40, suffered puncture wounds and an injured left hand along with the broken forearm in the attack at about 9 a.m. He was taken to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls.
Jeanie is a Whistler icon. But the 20-something black bear with a swath of white fur across her chest and eyes that seem to be lined with shadow is unfazed by her fame.
She does her best to tolerate the town-folk who have unofficially adopted her. She is photographed by tourists, gawked at from chairlifts, edged off trails by mountain bikers and awakened by heavy equipment. She ventures into Whistler Village occasionally - when she needs food for herself and her cubs and can't get enough in the mountains.
Recently, I was drawn to reflect upon the work that I have been doing with the Get Bear Smart Society. We have seen some tremendous improvements since the 1990s and I am so incredibly proud to be a part of the bear smart movement.
Most of our success can be contributed to education. When people know better, they do better. When people make the connection between their actions and an outcome, they can adjust their actions. It is a process; part of realizing our role in our community and also as part of the greater ecosystem and our natural environment. It is about taking responsibility.
The dangers of hunting where others have hunted were illustrated this week when an Interior Alaska grizzly bear mauled 65-year-old Donald "Skip" Sanford of Anchorage. Sanford hunting companion Monty Dyson said Thursday that the attack happened after Sanford went back to the site of an earlier moose kill along the Maclaren River, about 250 miles northeast of Alaska's largest city.
Sanford is still recovering from the attack in an Anchorage hospital, and is in no mood to talk.
A California hiker killed by a grizzly in Yellowstone National Park on July 6 - the first fatal bear mauling in Yellowstone in a quarter century, and one of two attacks in the park this year - may have unwittingly provoked the bear by screaming and running away, according to a final report released Tuesday.
The park report suggested that the 58-year-old victim, Brian Matayoshi, of Torrance, California, might have survived his encounter if he and his wife, Marylyn, had heeded posted advisories.
PORT COQUITLAM - Port Coquitlam is now enforcing bear regulations in its solid waste bylaw on both the north and south sides of the city for the first time, according to a press release from the city.
Bear regulations have been enforced on the north side since they were introduced in 2009. Lately, however, an increasing number of bears have been spotted in south side neighbourhoods - especially near the Coquitlam River and Colony Farm.
B.C. conservation officers shot 17 bears in the Christina Lake area this summer, and they suspect many were the famous "pot bears" found at a marijuana grow-op last year.
Insp. Aaron Canuel says three times the number of bears were euthanized in the area this year, compared to past years. Most were shot because they had become a nuisance and were too comfortable with people, he said.
The one-time bear man of Alaska's capital city pleaded guilty to a single count of feeding game last week.
As his penalty for trying to make pets of about a dozen black bears, 65-year-old Arnold W. Hanger was ordered to pay the state $4,000 and perform 80 hours of community-service work for the Wildlife Division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. In addition, he will spend two years on probation.
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