Conservation officers are warning people to avoid a popular trail in Squamish, B.C., following a bear attack.<\/p>\n
A woman was walking her leashed dog in the Squamish Estuary Wildlife Management Area near Bailey Street on Wednesday when she encountered a mother bear and her cubs, according to the Ministry of Environment and Parks. <\/p>\n
She was attacked but “sustained only scratches and did not seek medical attention,” a ministry spokesperson said. <\/p>\n
The Conservation Officer Service said it has investigated the attack and determined it was “defensive” in nature, as it was a sow with her cubs. <\/p>\n
Sarah Nolin and her dog Goose frequently use the dog park near where the attack occurred. She said she wasn’t surprised to hear of the incident. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know there are bears that live near the river here, so I expect it to happen,\u201d said Nolin. \u201cI am pretty comfortable with bears as long as they are no grizzlies.\u201d <\/p>\n
Since the incident, signs have been installed in the area, and conservation officers are monitoring the situation. <\/p>\n
The area hasn’t been closed off, but the Conservation Officer Service and District of Squamish have urged people to avoid the trail network and keep dogs leashed at all times. <\/p>\n
Nolin said she thinks it’s up to pet owners and trail walkers to be aware of wildlife.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I am in the parks and around the river in this area, I think I am in their space and not vice versa,” she said.<\/p>\n
In 2024, two separate bear attacks occurred in the same area as the most recent one. <\/p>\n
WildSafeBC is reminding people not to leave any food unattended, to carry bear spray when recreating outside, and not to try to scare away a bear that has food. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conservation officers are warning people to avoid a popular trail in Squamish, B.C., following a bear attack. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-204634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}