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All Non-lethal bear management Articles
2011 was a difficult year for Whistler's bear population. The number of bears that were destroyed and the number of bear complaints logged were higher than usual. The population endured a poor berry crop and the lack of natural food sources forced Whistler bears to seek out human food more frequently than in normal berry crop years.
In July, a grizzly defending her cubs attacked a couple hiking in Yellowstone National Park, it killing the man.
Again in Yellowstone, a man hiking alone was fatally mauled by a grizzly bear in August. In September, a Montana black bear hunter was attacked by a grizzly bear he mistakenly wounded. The guy's hunting partner tried to save him but ended up shooting and killing him.
Three bear cubs are learning to live without their mother, who was shot by conservation officers after the foursome was found foraging for food in a Coquitlam schoolyard last week. The nine-month-old cubs are now adjusting to their temporary home at Critter Care Wildlife Society in Langley.
Only one of three newborn polar bears was still clinging to life in the intensive-care unit of the Toronto Zoo on Thursday, after his two siblings succumbed to injuries inflicted by their mother.
Zoo workers are struggling to keep the tiny cub alive, born prematurely on Tuesday and then rejected by its mother, 10-year-old Aurora.
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) - State wildlife officials say a 2-year-old male grizzly bear that had been captured after breaking into a bee yard east of Deer Lodge has died of complications from the immobilization medications administered to the bear.
Fish, Wildlife and Parks bear management specialist Jamie Jonkel says the 280-pound bear had broken into a bee yard, protected by an electric fence, multiple times last week. The bear was captured Sunday by the U.S. Wildlife Services and handled by FWP. It died Tuesday.
Jonkel says biologists had planned to relocate the bear to a site in the South Fork of the Flathead River valley.
Four years ago the Alaska Legislature offered Gov. Sarah Palin and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game a special deal: $400,000 to "educate" voters on predator control. The money -- spent mostly on a video, glossy brochures and public presentations -- was meant to persuade and reassure Alaskans that predator control is essential and effective.
Firmly convinced he's doing the right thing, the new director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation at Fish and Game, Corey Rossi, is taking predator control to new levels. For the first time since statehood, Alaska has targeted grizzly bears for large-scale population reductions, not by hunters but by agents of the state.
This summer in Yellowstone National Park, on two separate occasions, two men sadly lost their lives from deadly encounters with grizzly bears. Both of these men did not carry bear pepper spray, and if they would have, they would likely still be alive. As autumn approaches and the leaves begin to change, its time to look at some other changes that will prevent the brutal loss of life that Yellowstone has experienced this year.
Thank God for the bear spray.
Without it, Kevin and Julie Boyer probably wouldn't be alive. Instead, they'd have likely shared the fates of two other hikers who were attacked and killed by grizzly bears this summer inside Yellowstone National Park.
But they did have bear spray. They survived. And they're here to share their story.
NEW SHARON, Maine - Nestled on a hillside behind their A-frame home, Dawn Brown and her husband, Michael, run the best bear rehabilitation facility you've never heard of.
There are no visitors queueing at the fence, waiting to get a glimpse of rollicking black bear cubs that are serving their time in a wooded 3-acre pen before being reintroduced to the wild. There is no admission fee. The public is not welcome. A sign on the steep, dirt driveway tells all who approach that they're on a private way.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement is investigating after a guard at BP's Endicott oil field apparently mortally wounded a polar bear by shooting it with a pyrotechnic shotgun shell in a hazing incident.
BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said Wednesday that the security guard, who works for the contractor Purcell Security, was hazing an aggressive polar bear on the night of Aug. 3 in an attempt to stop it from moving toward a housing unit at the North Slope oil field. He said the guard believed he was firing a non-lethal bean bag round from his 12-gauge shotgun.
The Anmore man injured by a mother bear visited her cubs at Langley's Critter Care animal shelter on Sunday.
"I was the guy who got attacked by the mama bear," Ken Hogue told staff.
"I just had to meet them."
Hogue described his Aug. 8 encounter with the mother bear in the Countryside Village manufactured home park near Buntzen Lake to Angela Fontana, the senior animal care supervisor at Critter Care.
A surge of problem bears on the North Shore is causing headaches for conservation officers, as a poor berry crop has driven the animals into populated areas.
So far, eight bears have been killed on the North Shore, compared to 10 last year and one the year before.
Conservation officers and RCMP have been called to three instances where bears have entered people's houses, including one on Tuesday on Brockton Crescent in North Vancouver where a woman was trapped inside the home as the bear rummaged through the kitchen.
GULL LAKE -- Cottagers in bear country have plenty of anecdotal evidence to support the controversial theory that feeding black bears can keep them away from populated areas.
At this cottage development southeast of Grand Beach, Helen Toews and her neighbour, Alice Nixdorf, said bears regularly walk through their development at least twice day -- early morning and late afternoon.
But Nixdorf said bears weren't a problem here until officials closed the local dump.
WINNIPEG - A wildlife biologist from Minnesota says black bear problems this summer can be solved without killing any more bears.
Lynn Rogers, director of the Wildlife Research Institute and the North American Bear Centre in Ely, Minnesota, said studies show that putting food out for bears at a designated site - a practice known as diversionary feeding - can keep black bears away from populated areas but doesn't condition the bears to human food.
BANFF, Alta. - One of the most popular hiking and biking trails in Banff National Park is bringing in restrictions at the height of the summer tourist season due to fears of bear attacks.
The Lake Minnewanka Trail has been a favourite haunt for hikers and mountain bikers for decades. There are over three million visitors to the park each year and many of them take to the 32-kilometre trail northeast of the Banff townsite.
PORT HARDY — A pair of young black bear cubs orphaned when their mother was struck and killed by a car Friday near Port Hardy are being cared for at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre after leading Conservation Officers on a merry chase for more than eight hours.
The sow was struck and killed on Highway 19 about 15 kilometres south of Port Hardy in the early morning hours July 15.
Dave Janke of Port Hardy, en route to work in Port Alice, came upon the sow at 6 a.m. Spotting one or more bear cubs moving on her body, he called Port Hardy RCMP, who in turn notified Port McNeill-based Conservation Officer Tim Schumacher.
VICTORIA - When conservation officers respond to a bear or cougar in a populated area, the animal will usually be shot rather than relocated, says B.C.'s top conservation officer.
Risk to humans is the sole consideration when a conservation officer decides whether to kill an animal, said Tom Clark, conservation service head.
"It's a case-by-case basis, but it's based on risk to public safety. If wildlife calls are made and it's determined public safety is at risk, the expectation is that the conservation officer will have to destroy the animal," he said.
Plans to allow firearms in Canada's northernmost parks so people can better protect themselves from polar bears should not be extended south, experts say, despite recent incidents in British Columbia and Wyoming.
Parks Canada made headlines with the announcement this week, but Alberta guides, wildlife experts and parks staff interviewed expressed no interest in bringing a similar strategy to this region.
UNION TOWNSHIP — Protesters said educating people about black bears would help calm fears and prevent bear killings like the one a week ago in Union Township.
The bear should have been tranquilized instead of being killed, said Angi Metler, an advocate for bears and one of the coordinators for today’s rally.
"You don’t have to resort to lethal means," said Metler, executive director of the Animal Protection League of New Jersey and a member of the Bear Education and Resource Group board of directors.
PORT ORCHARD - Trotting out of a greenbelt off Mile Hill Dive, Mishka's tongue hung out of his mouth. Panting to cool off, the dog's thick black fur was matted with sweat.
The 8-year-old dog and his handler, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officer Bruce Richards, were in pursuit of a young black bear seen hanging around three South Kitsap schools.
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