SOMETHING’S BRUIN: Two young adult black bears exhibit courting behaviour on Whistler Mountain recently as a third black bear grazes on grasses nearby.

Humans learning to coexist with bears
Better attractant management credited for drop in number of calls, conflicts so far in 2009
Jennifer Miller, June 25, 2009, Whistler Question

It’s still early in Whistler’s black bear season, but people working to reduce human-bear conflict and keep bears from finding garbage in the resort are “encouraged” by a dramatic reduction in the number of calls to report bear sightings so far this year.

Conservation Officer Drew Milne said Tuesday (June 23) that call volume to report bear activity is down almost 50 per cent compared to the early part of last season. Since April, 114 calls have been received at the B.C. Conservation Officer Service hotline. For the same period in 2008, 209 calls were received.

“I haven’t seen as many bears (in the Village and Whistler’s residential areas),” Milne said. “It’s encouraging.” Even more “promising,” Milne said, is that only five calls were received during May that were related to bears getting into garbage, compared with 20 such calls in the same month last year. MORE

ALSO IN THE NEWS

A conservation officer in Prince George, B.C., gave chest compressions to a bear after it stopped breathing Monday. (Global)A conservation officer in Prince George, B.C., used his CPR training to save a bear's life after it was tranquillized.

B.C. conservation officer uses CPR smarts to resuscitate bear
CBC News, June 23, 2009

Gary Van Spengen's conservation team was called to a residential neighbourhood Monday after a female bear was spotted in a tree.

A biologist tranquillized the bear while it was up the tree, and after what Van Spengen described as a "soft landing," the bear stopped breathing after it hit the ground, but still had a heartbeat.

Van Spengen said he has never seen a bear stop breathing after being tranquillized in his 20 years as a conservation officer.

"We could tell the heart was still beating … but the chest wasn't moving at all. I didn't want to lose this bear because I wanted to get a radio collar on it, so I started doing chest compressions on the bear to try to get air in and out of the lungs," Van Spengen told CBC Radio's B.C. Almanac on Tuesday. MORE

CP Rail works towards ‘bear awareness’
By Brandon Adams - Revelstoke Times Review, June 22, 2009

CP Rail has responded to a relatively widely circulated e-mail by Defenders of Wildlife Director Jim Pissot which called into question the company’s ‘bear awareness.’

In the e-mail, Pissot questioned CP Rail’s management of grain spills along the railway’s tracks, spills which Pissot says attract bears.

“Just passed through Revelstoke and saw, from the overpass, two black bears eating from a large pile of spilled grain on the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks,” wrote Pissot, who claimed this wasn’t the first time he’d seen bears feeding on spilt grain at the location.

Pissot states, in the e-mail, “Last year in Revelstoke alone, ten black bears and one grizzly were destroyed as a result of conflict with people. How many of these unfortunate bears were lured into town—and into conflict—by following grain spilled along CP Railway tracks?” MORE

Bear 71 a huge loss to national park
By Larissa Barlow, The Banff Craig & Canyon, June 17, 2009

When Parks Canada talks about what constitutes “the perfect bear,” Bear 71 always came up.

She was a great mother, giving birth to many grizzly cubs to help bolster the dwindling population. She stayed out of trouble and was hardly seen by the public despite roaming close to populated areas.

So when Parks Canada officials found out she’d been killed June 6 by a train east of Canmore, the loss was that much harder to take.

It was the end of an eight-year relationship with the bear, who died at 11 years old.

Bear 71 first came to the attention of Parks back in 2001. She was then three years old and a little too curious about the humans she shared the park with. She was frequenting the side of roads and campgrounds, so Parks captured her and radio collared her, giving her the ID number 71. MORE

Parks reviewing grizzly mortality target
By Cathy Ellis - Rocky Mountain Outlook, June 25, 2009

A new mortality target geared towards conserving grizzly bears in Banff National Park is being considered for other national parks as part of the review of the park management plans.

Parks Canada officials say the uncertain status of grizzly bears, coupled with Banff having the lowest known reproductive rates for the species, highlights the need for very conservative management of grizzlies.

They say new research suggests the survival of reproductive females is the key factor affecting the population. They aim to stick to revised mortality thresholds and maintain and improve existing habitat security levels.

“The new threshold for the number of females we can lose is endorsed by the IPS (Interdisciplinary Problem Solving) group and based on the best available science,” said Kevin Van Tighem, superintendent of Banff National Park.

“It’s not proposing a substantive change to policy, but it’s fine tuning the existing management plan around what we now know.” MORE

Oregon bear benefactor ordered to move
UPI.com, June 25, 2009

An Oregon judge Thursday ordered a woman to move out of her rural home for three years as part of her probation for feeding bears from the neighboring forest.

Karen Noyes, 61, of Yachats, also was ordered to stay out of the neighborhood, which has become a hangout for black bears who wandered in for the tasty handouts.

Noyes was convicted in a Newport courtroom on charges of chasing and harassing wildlife after Oregon wildlife agents testified they had warned Noyes as early as 2003 that she should not be feeding the bears that lived in the nearby woods.

"Bears are not your pets to do with as you please," Judge Thomas Branford said from the bench.

The (Portland) Oregonian said Noyes insisted after the hearing that no one had ever told her the bears were a problem, but neighbors told the newspaper they were relieved that they would no longer have to keep a wary eye out for them.

The newspaper said one homeowner discovered a bear trying to squeeze into the house through a doggy door. Another had a bear shot after it menaced his ex-wife.