Several recent attacks by grizzly bears \u2014 including Thursday\u2019s vicious encounter that injured 11 students and teachers near Bella Coola \u2014 are a reminder that conflicts between the animals and humans are increasing, the B.C. Wildlife Federation says.<\/p>\n
The federation says grizzly-human conflicts have risen dramatically ever since the grizzly hunt was terminated in B.C. in 2017 \u201cdue to popular opinion, with no scientific rationale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 10 years preceding the ban, calls to the Conservation Officer Service [BCCOS] concerning grizzly conflicts ranged from 300 to 500 a year, peaking between April and November. Since the ban, calls about grizzly bears doubled, to nearly 1,000 a year,\u201d BC Wildlife said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen hunting pressure is removed, the number of problem grizzlies increases.\u201d<\/p>\n
B.C. Wildlife Federation executive director Jesse Zeman says conflicts with the predators will keep getting worse until the province reinstates \u201cscience-based wildlife management.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the hunt was closed we predicted that over time human-grizzly conflicts would increase, but we also know that bears that learn bad behaviours teach those same behaviours to their offspring,\u201d said Zeman.<\/p>\n
\u2018The new normal\u2018<\/p>\n
In addition to this week\u2019s incident, several grizzly attacks have been reported around B.C. in the past two months, BCCOS says. These include attacks on hunters in both Fort St. James and Fort Steele within the same week at the end of September. On Oct. 12, two hikers were seriously injured in an attack near Prince George.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the new normal,\u201d the BC Wildlife Federation said. <\/p>\n
However, officials do point out that Thursday\u2019s attack was not typical.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a media event Friday, BCCOS inspector Kevin Van Damme said these kinds of attacks \u2014 with this many victims \u2014 are extremely rare.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my 34 years of experience, I have not seen an attack like this with a large group of people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Samuel Schooner, the elected Chief of the Nuxalk Nation, also says he has never experienced anything like this during his time in the community.<\/p>\n
Van Damme says traps have been set in the area to catch the animal responsible for Thursday\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n
Residents increasingly uncomfortable with bear encounters<\/p>\n
Locals near Bella Coola say they\u2019re very used to interacting with bears in the area, and even from a young age, kids are taught how to be bear aware.<\/p>\n
However, in recent years, residents say the encounters have become increasingly uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
Shannon Lansdowne\u2019s family runs a wilderness lodge, which recently had an unwelcome guest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bear bust down the door,\u201d Lansdowne said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same thing happened to a grandma around the area.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says the animals have even encroached on her own home, sharing that she once saw a grizzly right outside of her five-year-old son\u2019s window.<\/p>\n
The BCCOS says that if you encounter a grizzly, stay calm and do not run. Instead, you\u2019re advised to speak softly, and back away slowly, or use bear spray if it charges.<\/p>\n
\u2014 With files from Charles Brockman, David Nadalini, and The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several recent attacks by grizzly bears \u2014 including Thursday\u2019s vicious encounter that injured 11 students and teachers near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-299130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}