Bear shootings are down dramatically in B.C. thanks to increased efforts by the public to eliminate attractants and knowledgeable conservation officers who are better at assessing risk and coming up with alternatives to tracking and killing bruins.
That's the assessment of Dan LeGrandeur, a former B.C. conservation officer who started his own business and now trains wildlife workers, law enforcement officers and others how to use aversion techniques to drive away bears.
"The value of Bear Aware is the education that you are able to deliver to people who live in bear country," said the Alberta-based expert in non-lethal bear-management techniques and owner of Bear Scare (www.bearscare.ca).
LeGrandeur, who worked out of the Surrey conservation office for 17 years, said killing bears was a regular part of his job but it started to take an emotional toll.
"It's not something they [conservation officers] enjoy," he said. "It's a reality of the job that you may have to destroy a bear."
What was frustrating was that some of the bears didn't need to be killed and human negligence or apathy was what usually led to problems and ultimately a bruin at the business end of a gun.
"Generally, it's not the fact that bears are difficult to manage, it's the humans," he said.
In the years he was employed with B.C.'s Conservation Officer Service, approximately 1,000 black bears were shot every year and killing them was 80% of his job. In 2010, 675 bears were destroyed even though the year was among the busiest for bear complaints.
He's glad to see more emphasis has been placed on educating people about eliminating bear attractants and would like to see more law enforcement officers trained in aversion techniques, such as the use of rubber bullets, beanbags and pyrotechnics to keep bears away.
dstrandberg@tricitynews.com
Bear managementin Coquitlam
YEAR KILLED RELOCATED
2005 7 5
2006 6 5
2007 3 3
2008 14 3
2009 1 11
2010 9 3
- source: Bear Aware in Coquitlam; statistics for Port Moody and Port Coquitlam are not available
