Bears will continue to move into the Tri-Cities in greater numbers unless efforts are made to crack down on attractants that make the suburbs a giant fast-food drive-through for the hungry omnivores.
That's the warning from Coquitlam Bear Aware co-ordinator Drake Stephens, who says he has seen the bear population quadruple since he got involved in educating people about local bruins a decade ago.
With 600 acres of blueberry farms, fish-filled creeks and verdant forests, not to mention new development creeping up the mountainside, there are many opportunities for black bears and humans to bump into each other.
"I counted 20 bears one night in one blueberry farm," says Stephens, who believes the region is home to a population of about 50 bears.
Development creates open spaces and natural food sources, such as sweet green clover that bears can't resist, especially when food in the mountains is scarce.
And if they get a taste of garbage during one of their forays into the suburbs, they don't leave, he said, they become trouble.
"They're just like our teenagers," Stephens says in describing the bears, many of which are young males that haven't acquired territory like older, established bears and have to travel further and take more risks to find food.
And when they show up in a city, they usually end up dead. Last year in Coquitlam alone, 11 bears had to be shot because they became habituated to garbage.
Female bears with cubs are also drawn to a suburban lifestyle for the easy pickings while impregnated females that must have sufficient stores of fat to produce cubs might also be lured to residential streets. (In a process called delayed implantation, embryos will not implant unless fat stores are high enough to support lactation during hibernation when cubs are born.)
But the easy life of a garbage-habituated bear is usually short-lived. If they are not relocated or shot, they get hit by cars, Stephens says. "Fifty per cent of cubs don't survive the first two years," he said, expressing some frustration at the cycle that draws bears into the neighbourhood, only to have them injured by cars or shot.
The good news is that getting rid of attractants can make a big difference. Bears may still pass through but they won't have any reason to paw through trash bins. That's what happened on Westwood Plateau last year when residents got better at managing their attractants: The bears simply moved on.
Drake remembers how his own father wised up to the bear problem he was creating and after twice shooting bears during mating season (mid-May to July), put up electric fences and locked up the animal food on his hobby farm.
BC Conservation Officer statistics also show that education is making a difference. Although the number of complaint calls has steadily risen over the years, bear shootings have stayed fairly stable (see chart).
Wildlife conflict manager Mike Badry credits the work of Bear Aware and individuals such as Stephens for helping people learn to live with bears.
"I'm loving the trend," Badry says. "We're seeing the actual bears needing to be removed because the number of conflicts is continuing to go down."
Still, vigilance and managing attractants is key, so curious and hungry bears don't become garbage-fed bears - and dead bears.
BEAR TALK
A bear talk is set for 7 p.m. on April 27 in the Inlet Theatre at Port Moody city hall. Christine Miller of the North Shore Black Bear Network will speak. Free admission.
WHAT'S YOUR BEAR STORY
Bears are a fact of life in Tri-City neighbourhoods that back onto forests, trails and greenways. It's not uncommon to see a mother bear and cubs munching blueberries, sauntering down a back lane or sunning in a backyard. Tell us about your close encounter with a bear. Email your story, photo or video to [email protected] and we'll use somesubmissions in a futurepart of this series.
BEARS IN AREA, PART 3 - MAY 25:Getting to know the region's bears
