| |
All Whistler Articles
Two more black bears were destroyed in Whistler in recent days, and conservation officers are keeping busy with a number of bears frequenting the Village.
A poor and late berry crop in the alpine is keeping bears in the valley looking for food.
"It's been extremely busy in Whistler," Sgt. Dave Jevons from the B.C. Conservation Officer Service said of black bear activity and conflict this week.
Conservation officers shot another bear in Whistler this week after the animal entered several homes in the Whistler Cay neighbourhood.
The incident brings the total of black bears killed so far this year because of conflict with humans to six. And with a poor berry crop so far this summer, conflict activity is expected to continue in the valley, said Sgt. Chris Doyle of the Conservation Officer Service.
Dear Editor,
Riding the Wizard Chair en route to Rendezvous, posed in sukasana (easy pose), I retreated into the Aug. 4 issue of The Question and there it was on the front page: "Three black bears killed in past week."
My heart stopped. My Zen moment vanished into thin air as the ache in my heart and throat tensed my body realizing this is the reason I haven't seen them over the past week. While I struggled with this reality, over the next rise, the biggest one of the three regulars was grazing on yellow flowers, blissful among the tall grasses and flowers
Whistler's alpine is on track to potentially experience one of the most unusual summer seasons in the resort's history.
That's according to Arthur De Jong, mountain planning and environmental resource manager for Whistler Blackcomb.
"What we're seeing this year is potentially a one in 50 or a one in 100 years situation," said De Jong. "This may be one of the few years in our brief history here, our history as a resort, where we may see glacial advance. There's a very high probability of it this year."
Black bears are undeniably a part of the Whistler scene and are beloved by locals and tourists alike. Unfortunately, they're also the source of frustration for some, most notably the conservation officers who are forced to deal with the animals when the get into conflict with humans.
Most of the time these conflicts are not the fault of the animal but rather people who were careless in how they went about securing potential bear attractants such as garbage and bird feeders.
Strawberry Point, a popular camping area north of Pemberton, will remain closed for the long weekend if a troublesome black bear has not been captured or moved on in time, conservation officers said this week.
“We’ve had a bear there that’s been extremely aggressive and approached campers for food,” Sgt. Chris Doyle of the Conservation Officer Service, said Wednesday (July 27). “It’s totally lost its fear of people and has received food rewards from campsites and has repeatedly approached people for food and tried to chase people out of their sites in order to look for food.
A weekend stay at the luxurious Fairmont Chateau Whistler can hardly be considered roughing it, but a weekend package offered early next month will take hotel guests out of their fuzzy white robes and slippers, and "into the wild."
The iconic Whistler resort has teamed with the National Geographic Society to offer a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to get up close and personal with the local bear population.
Though Whistlerite Jeffrey Almond has no memory of what happened to him as he was walking home through the woods in the early hours of June 27, he believes he was attacked by a black bear. But local conservation officers say they couldn't find any evidence of a bear attack after they investigated the incident.
Almond's version of events was published in the July 7 issue of Pique, but the incident had not been reported to conservation officers or police. When conservation officers learned of the possible bear attack from the newspaper article, they launched an investigation.
At roughly 10:30 p.m. on July 3 a northbound vehicle on Highway 99 and Meadow Park saw a bear walk onto the road and braked so the bear could pass. He noticed an oncoming motorcycle in the oncoming lane and attempted to warn the driver by flashing his lights, but the driver did not slow down. The motorcyclist hit the bear and was knocked to the ground.
The bear ran into the woods after the accident, and it's not known of it was injured. The motorcycle driver sustained minor bumps and scrapes and damage to his motorcycle was minor.
VANCOUVER -- Human-bear conflicts are down so far this year, government statistics show, despite recent headlines that might lead you to believe otherwise.
Over the last three weeks a series of incidents in B.C. has left one Lillooet-area woman dead from a black bear attack, one man seriously injured after being attacked by a grizzly bear at Rivers Inlet, a jogger attacked by a black bear near Mount Seymour and one North Vancouver woman terrified after a black bear attacked her dog and tried to force its way into her home.
Let's talk trash. Specifically, yours. What do you do with it? How do you get rid of it? Do you smuggle it on the bus to get it to the nearest dumpster you can find?
Maybe you work hard every day, sorting, cleaning and composting everything that can be diverted from the landfill (good job!). Do you stash it in your garage until it emits perfume de bear-come-'n'-get-me? Leave it sitting outside your recently built new-and-improved bear-proof garbage shed when you forget your key? At the bus stop partially stuffed into the already overflowing bin, essentially baiting a bear into your 'hood?
It has been a busy week or so for black bear activity and other wildlife in Whistler, with conservation officers making the decision to kill the first bear of the season because it entered a home in Alta Vista. Other recent bear-human encounters included two other home invasions, a bear raiding golf bags at a local course and a cub hit and killed by a vehicle on Highway 99.
A cougar sighting was also reported in Spring Creek last Wednesday (June 22).
It was a large, adult male black bear that conservation officers trapped and shot last Wednesday after it entered an Alta Vista home while two people were inside. The previous day (June 21), the bear went “deep into the house and into the kitchen” where it found food, said Chris Doyle, conservation officer.
Conservation officers caught and killed a large, adult male black bear in Whistler this week after the bear got into a house in Alta Vista when two people were at home. It was the first bear to be killed because of conflict this season.
On Tuesday (June 21), the bear went "deep into the house and into the kitchen" where it found food, said Chris Doyle, conservation officer. The bear returned several times, circling the house and looking at doors and windows for a way back in.
Driving home last evening from Whistler to Squamish eight to ten cars were stopped on both sides of the road, where the cement barriers were present, making the shoulder much smaller than normal.
I thought there was an accident in progress making me slam on my breaks coming around a downhill corner.
To my amazement it turned out not to be an accident but a lone bear in the ditch. This is a HUGE hazard for other drivers on this highway people!
I first observed Jeanie out of the den on May 21 with two black cubs on Whistler Mountain.
The twenty-year-old mom then had at least one aggressive encounter with a coyote and two aggressive encounters with large male bears.
Coyotes have been known to sneak up to small spring cubs to kill them for food although I've never seen them be successful. Male bears pose the more serious threat to spring cubs killing them to force the mothers back into the breeding cycle. The last time I saw Jeanie with two cubs was on May 24. On May 26, Sylvia Dolson of the Get Bear Smart Society saw her with only one cub during the Toonie Bike Race in the lower Bike Park. Both mom and cub were treed and appeared agitated.
This is great to hear interested groups meeting to discuss this topic. Keep in mind however that there is a long list of species getting killed on the highway as well as bears. From a human safety perspective, I suppose hitting a bear head-on is the most likely to cause us injury, (along with deer, causing that air bag to go off).
So how many deer, skunks, raccoons, mice, squirrels, bobcats, snakes, frogs (well, very little remains of the red-legged frog in the pine crest area at all), just to mention a small few, end up road kill?
Wildlife officials are concerned that black bears coming out of hibernation are showing up in alarming numbers along the Sea to Sky Highway near Whistler, B.C.
Part of the problem is clover planted on the roadside when the highway was expanded before the 2010 Olympics. Bear experts say the animals love clover and will brave fast-moving traffic to get it.
May 26, 2011 — Media Coverage: Save a bear
OK. So summer is rolling in slowly and bear sightings on the road are getting more and more common every day. Again, a new wave of tourists is starting to come into town, stopping on their way up to take a closer look at the bears.
First of all, it is dangerous for the other drivers on the road and as we learned in the past, those situations can trigger bear attacks on humans and bears' lives are lost (because of this).
May to October, it's an odd day in Whistler that I don't see a black bear. Sometimes I have to go out of my way not to. I've bumped into them taking out the garbage, walking down the street, at Starbucks Creekside, outside Village 8 Cinemas, running on the valley trail, biking everywhere and on skis (in a November snowstorm so fierce that the animal itself was caked in white like a Polar Bear). I like the fact that we live in such proximity to black bears, and I get pissed when people's carelessness in yards, homes or on the road results in their death. I'm neither afraid nor overly trusting-after all, they're black bears. I have healthy respect and treat them like the wild, wary animals they should remain.
A growing unease about the increase in bears being killed and injured on the Sea to Sky Highway, as well as traffic safety concerns relating to copious "bear jams," has prompted further investigation by the Get Bear Smart Society, along with the many members of the Whistler Black Bear Working Group.
While both organizations have been integral to reducing human-bear conflict in and around Whistler for many years, the main focus of the group has been public education with respect to securing attractants and bear proofing the waste management system. This new phenomena is cause for significant concern among the stakeholders.
|
|
|
