Eight black bears euthanized in the Tofino-Ucluelet region had lost their fear of humans

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Eight bears have had to be destroyed in the Tofino-Ucluelet region so far this year, nearly triple the number last year, and it could get worse as the bruins prepare for hibernation and become conditioned to easy food sources. like unsafe garbage and chicken. cooperatives.

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Bob Hansen, WildSafeBC Pacific Rim region coordinator, said the bears had lost their fear of humans and began to depend on pet and livestock food, garden fruits, outdoor freezers, bird feeders, garbage bins. commercial, even uncleaned barbecues.

Two of the eight destroyed bears were shot last week after eating garbage from unsecured containers. Hansen said the Conservation Officials Service informed him that calls for conflict between humans and bears are increasing.

To complicate matters, Hansen said, it was a record year for visitors to the region and a dome of summer heat that destroyed much of the inland wild berry crop and forced bears closer to the foggy zone at along the west coast.

“Bear activity increased after that,” Hansen said. “Most of the abundant berry crops are found in our communities.”

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Increased human interaction and unsafe food sources can lead to a death sentence for a bear, he said.

The Environment Ministry said conservation officials destroyed 227 bears from April to August across British Columbia, including 74 black bears in August. During the period from April to August 2020, 294 black bears were destroyed.

As hibernation approaches, Hansen said, black bears have a natural obsession with gaining weight to survive a nearly six-month sleep. This “hyperphagia” for storing energy in the form of fat is essential for bears to give birth and survive in their dens during hibernation.

They can consume up to 20,000 calories a day for about a month. Hansen said the bears are typically found in salmon streams, on berry patches or eating carcasses.

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But if they like garbage or other easy food sources, bears will start to trust it.

Vanessa Isnardy, provincial coordinator for WildSafeBC, which aims to prevent conflict with wildlife through education, said black bears are awake 20 hours a day and travel the landscape “with a food map on their heads.” . He said they normally avoid any human contact.

“If there is an apple tree on their food map, they will eat from it. But when the fruit fades, they may be looking for what else is available; sometimes that’s a trash can left overnight. “

There are a number of ways that humans can avoid habitating a bear to being fed, such as storing trash indoors until the morning of pickup, installing electric fences around chicken coops and greenhouses, cleaning up fallen fruit, and trimming bushes from berries.

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Hansen said some residents have built heavy wooden sheds to store their trash, but the bears have made their way.

“People complain that their garbage smells inside their garage,” he said.

“What I do is sort the things that smell bad and put them in my freezer until garbage day.”

Hansen said the euthanized bears are a warning that communities have more work to do.

Retired park ranger and Hitacu-Macoah coordinator Marianne Paquette, who works with First Nations and unincorporated areas like Salmon Beach, is educating residents, businesses, and visitors about coexistence with wildlife in areas like the Pacific Rim. .

They go door-to-door, offer workshops, go to classrooms, and post messages on social media to educate people about protecting against bears.

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WildSafeBC is also working with businesses, towns, and municipal areas. Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District is providing up to $ 500 for residents to install electric fences around chicken houses. The last call to conservation officials was on Sunday, when a resident reported a bear in their hen house, the ninth report in cooperatives this year.

The other big problem is companies that leave large metal containers unsecured. “The bears just lift the lid and climb in … it’s a big metal box full of food,” Hansen said.

Isnardy said work to deter bears from human food sources should be done at the municipal level, with officials educating residents about what they need to do to protect bears and all wildlife, and backing it up with law enforcement and fines.

She said reassuring and relocating bears rarely works.

“It is not a solution because it does not address the root cause: human behavior,” Isnardy said.

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