![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Listen to this article<\/p>\n
Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n
There has been growing concern over bears around Inuvik, N.W.T., in recent months, with authorities saying they’ve had more calls, and dispatched more officers to the town, in response.<\/p>\n
According to territorial government biologist Faye d\u2019Eon Eggertson, a new electric fence installed around the local dump has blocked access to food grizzly bears had relied on, and that’s prompted many of the animals to move into town to find food.<\/p>\n
\u201cBears have a really good memory for where they\u2019ve found food in the past,\u201d D\u2019Eon Eggertson said. \u201cThey come back to the same places to try to find food \u2026 but they can\u2019t get into the landfill this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said a total of 14 bears have been euthanized so far this season in the Inuvik area.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Eon Eggertson spoke to the CBC\u2019s Wanda McLeod on Northwind on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n
So what are you noticing?<\/p>\n
We have had a lot of increased public interest or concern about bears this year. There\u2019s been a lot of calls to the government of the Northwest Territories’ wildlife emergency bear line. [Some bears are] near the edge of town looking for food, usually at night. And there\u2019s some near the trails near town. So people are seeing bears and reporting those. <\/p>\n
Bears are coming in, especially if they\u2019re attracted, if they can find garbage in town, garbage or food or barbecues or animal carcasses. Mostly they\u2019re looking for other food sources now that the landfill has been fenced.<\/p>\n
How well is the new fence working?<\/p>\n
The fence itself is going well. The bears haven\u2019t been able to dig through it.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve got some cameras looking at how they respond to the fence. They run away, they don\u2019t like getting shocked. [We are] trying to discourage them from coming back. You want them to associate it with it not being a good place to go.<\/p>\n
How are you going to be handling these bears in the future?<\/p>\n
There are wildlife officers doing regular patrols throughout the night and they\u2019re all on call. The officers need to assess the situation with each bear call. The first consideration is always public safety, and then you look at what the bears are doing. The officers have a toolkit of options, they\u2019ve got non-lethal methods like rubber bullets, they\u2019ve got lethal methods.<\/p>\n
The very first step is trying to make sure we\u2019re not attracting bears into town. We\u2019ve got bear-proof garbage bins, but make sure they\u2019re not overflowing. <\/p>\n
From the personal safety end, you want to make sure you don\u2019t want to startle a grizzly bear in the woods. Be aware of your surroundings, make sure you\u2019re making noise. It\u2019s always a good idea to carry some bear spray. <\/p>\n
If you have a problem with a bear in town there is the 24\/7 wildlife emergency line, 867-678-0289.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-806483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806483","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=806483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}