It was a very busy day yesterday (Aug 17) for conservation officers in Quesnel.
Joel Kline say it started off with a cougar sighting at around noon on Murphy Street.
He says he and RCMP spent 20 minutes looking for the animal down along the train tracks and the Quesnel River but there was no sign of the cougar.
Kline says about an hour later he was called to the walking trail along Baker Creek just off of Lewis Drive for three black bears.
He says a sow and two cubs were up a tree and eventually wanted to come down into an area with a lot of the public around.
Kline says he couldn’t let that happen, but the story does have a happy ending.
“I did some research and ran some historical stuff to see if this bear had been in conflict at all within the city limits and i did not come up with anything so there was no indication that she was into unnatural foods or attractants that she shouldn’t have been. So the decision was made to try and chemically immobilize her and her cubs and then remove from city limits and put them back out into the wild.”
Kline says that happened this (Aug 18) morning just west of Quesnel.
He says it was a long process though as it went from 1 o’clock in the afternoon until 8-30 at night.
Kline says they believe that the bears had been feeding on apples trees in the area as well as berries.
He says it is very important for people to remove the fruit from their trees at this time of year before they end up on the ground and attract these animals.
Kline says the Cariboo Regional District didn’t get funding for the Wild Safe program this year to coordinate apple picking so he suggests that people go on Facebook instead to enlist help.
Kline says there hasn’t been a lot of bear activity so far this year but he says he expects that to change as we head into September.