In the last week, bears have been seen in upper Colliery Dam Park, on Westwood and Jingle Pot roads, and on a trail in Buttertubs Marsh.
Bear sightings have increased in Nanaimo, likely because bears are more active in fall as they look for food and store fat before hibernation, the B.C. Conservation Officer Service says.
On Monday, the City of Nanaimo issued a warning about a bear in the upper Colliery Dam Park. Two days earlier, the Nanaimo branch of St. John’s Ambulance posted a photo on social media of a mother bear and two cubs on a trail in Buttertubs Marsh.
Right now, bears are going into a stage called hyperphagia or “extreme eating,” according to WildSafeBC. They need to eat about 20,000 calories a day to build up winter fat reserves to last them through the colder months.
Winter denning can last as long as six months on Vancouver Island for females that are giving birth in dens over the winter, said wildlife biologist Helen Davis, a researcher with Artemis Wildlife Consultants. At this time of year, however, natural food availability in B.C. is likely reduced because of drought conditions, wildfires and poor berry crops, the B.C. Conservation Officer Service said.
That could mean more bears getting into birdseed, pet food, fruit on trees or leftovers in places like garbage cans, which should be properly secured, say WildSafe and the Conservation Officer Service. Though the climate is warmer on Vancouver Island than elsewhere in Canada, bears here do hibernate, Davis said.
“Females who are having babies have to hibernate,” she wrote in an email, adding bears use hibernation to survive a period with little to no food.
“If people make food available to them, like at garbage dumps, they may not have to den, or den for as long.”
Resident John Szabo wrote on social media that he was walking his dog at about 1 a.m. on Tuesday in the Jingle Pot Road area when he saw bins knocked over and trash scattered. He was about to cross the road when he spotted a black bear near Avonlea Drive.
“Stopped and watched him walk up Avonlea and then go south on Jinglepot. My dog did not even notice the bear and the bear didn’t notice us,” he wrote.
“Somehow we had to have walked past him because he was headed the way we just came from. He must have been hiding in the bushes across the street.”
Terri Ballendine, meanwhile, was driving along Westwood Road on Monday morning when she saw a mother bear and two cubs in an empty grass lot across from the SPCA. She’s lived in a home on nearby Cathers
Drive for 31 years, but said this is the first time she’s ever seen cubs. However, on Feb. 21, her security camera caught a bear “galloping” through her front yard and into her backyard.
“I thought, who’s chasing you?” she said with a laugh.