“Buffaloberries to us might be a little bit sour, but the bears really like them, and that’s why they’re out there foraging at this time,” Loewen said.
“And with an extremely high number of buffaloberries out there, then we know that the bears will be out there feeding on them, and there will be just a greater opportunity for people to interact with the bear, come into contact with the bear.”
Of the 17 Alberta Parks bear advisories in place, the latest warning is different from the 16 others, as it encompasses all of Kananaskis rather than focusing on a specific area where bears have been seen or encountered.
“Normally when we have issues with bears, we know it’s a particular bear in a particular area, so we just [implement] warnings for that area,” Loewen said. “But since the buffaloberry issue is widespread, because they’re growing everywhere across Kananaskis, we wanted to make sure that we provided a warning across the whole area.”
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The bear warning will likely remain in place for 10 to 14 days, Loewen said.
“We’ll probably leave this on until the berries fall from the bushes,” he said, adding that “they’re starting to fall already.”