It appears that a grizzly bear is still making its rounds in Quesnel.
The bear was spotted several times in Johnston Subdivision a few weeks ago and Conservation Officer Kyle Bueckert says they were unable to trap it.
“The grizzly bear, from what the CO Service understands, worked its way back into the green space on Dragon Creek there and worked its way south of town. And there wasn’t any confirmed sightings for a few weeks until recently we received a couple calls in regards to a potential grizzly bear sighting in the North Quesnel area. It may be the same bear, and I suspect that the bear that was confirmed in Johnston Sub hasn’t gone too far, so I just want to really encourage the public to make sure that attractants are properly secured so that this bear can move out of town on its own.”
Bueckert says it seems like that is what this bear wants at this time.
“The bear didn’t access any unnatural food sources that we’re aware of so there definitely is the possibility that it’s hanging around, but also it couldn’t be working its way out of town. This bear has been behaving itself so far, it hasn’t shown any significant signs of threatening behavior or any real concern for safety of the public, so we’re hoping that the bear will work its way out of town and not be in conflict.”
Bueckert points out though that the CO Service hasn’t been able to confirm that the sighting in downtown Quesnel was a grizzly, or if it was the same bear.
“The CO Service didn’t see the bear, but descriptions from the complainant and residents in the area lead to it may be a grizzly bear. That being said, there are a lot of large color phased black bears in the Quesnel area that sometimes get confused with being grizzly bears.”
On the recent fatal grizzly bear attack in Banff, Bueckert says it won’t change their approach with the bear in Quesnel.
“Grizzly bear attacks are extremely rare. What happened in Banff was extremely unfortunate. We assess bears daily and if I ever feel like a bear is a significant public safety concern we will deal with it appropriately, but to paint all bears with the same brush is something that the CO Service just will not do. We want to make sure that we’re following policy and that the bears have the chance to survive and behave and that we can work with the bears.”
Bueckert says we can expect bears to continue to be a part of our lives as they won’t den for at least the next few weeks .
“We’re really hoping that it’s sooner rather than later. Typically in the Quesnel area bears will start to look for dens in the month of November, so we still have a good month of bear activity left.”
He says they encourages the public to continue to call in with bear sightings as it helps the CO Service keep track of them.
