PUBLIC WARNED TO BEWARE OF BEARS ON THE MOVE

[Deleted]

INFORMATION BULLETIN

For Immediate Release

2006ENV0037-000611

May 17, 2006
Ministry of Environment





PUBLIC WARNED TO BEWARE OF BEARS ON THE MOVE







VICTORIA – Most of British Columbia’s bears are on the move after coming out of winter hibernation, and Environment Minister Barry Penner is warning the public to take steps to avoid bear/human conflicts.



They’re hungry, on the prowl for food and in the case of female bears, they are often accompanied by cubs. They will aggressively defend their offspring.



The B.C. Conservation Officer Service urges people to take steps to bear-proof their homes as a way to cut down on conflicts:



Garbage and Compost:

Keep garbage in the house, garage or shed until pick-up day.
Don’t add meat products or cooked food to compost, turn it regularly and keep it covered.


Fruit Trees:

Pick ripe fruit daily.
Remove unused trees.


Bird Food:

Use bird feeders only in winter.
Keep ground free of seeds.


Barbecues:

Clean the grill after each use.
Store covered in a secure area.


Pet Food:

Bring pet dishes inside and clean up any spillage.
Store pet food indoors.


The Ministry of the Environment’s Bear Smart pamphlet is available at Service BC Government Agents and retail outlets where outdoor equipment is sold. For more information on avoiding conflicts with bears, visit the Ministry of Environment website at: wlapwww.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/bearsmart/10_THINGS_BEARS.pdf



People having problems with bears, cougars, wolves, or other predators should call the B.C. Conservation Officer Service immediately at 1-800-663-9453 (WILD).

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Media

contact:
Don McDonald

Communications Director

250 387-9733






For more information on government services or to subscribe to the Province’s news feeds using RSS, visit the Province’s website at www.gov.bc.ca.

[Sean V.]

Thanks for the info, Ken.

It best to keep yourself safe & informed when one is out and about in bear country.

[Deleted]

Here is something on bears I ran across the other day:

Alaskan man shoots big grizzly while answering nature's call

AUTHOR: Tim Mowry



Fairbanks Daily News - Miner
June 23, 2006
www.news-miner.com/

It's one of those only-in-Alaska-type stories that is almost too unbelievable to be true.

But Chris Yeager swears it's the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and he has the hide of a trophy Interior grizzly bear to prove it.

It was May 30 and Yeager was driving up the Elliott Highway en route to a black bear bait station he had set up in the woods about 140 miles north of Fairbanks.

After stopping at the Hilltop Cafe for "one of those big breakfast omelettes that are about 18 inches wide and 4 inches deep," as he put it, Yeager pulled over on the side of the Elliott Highway at Mile 97 to answer nature's call. He grabbed a roll of toilet paper and slung on a shoulder holster containing his .460-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun.

While Yeager was planning to use the pistol to shoot a black bear if he saw one from his tree stand, he basically takes a gun with him everywhere he goes, which is not unnatural behavior considering he is a bona fide gun nut who works as a range technician at the Fort Wainwright firing range and moonlights as the manager of Alaskan Gun & Ammo on Sixth Avenue.

Besides, he was walking into the woods in Alaska and Yeager is the type of person who believes anyone going into the woods in Alaska should be carrying a gun.

He is also the type of person who believes that when you stop on the road to answer nature's call, you should do so a considerable distance off the road, so as not to offend any passing motorists.

Or as the affable Yeager put it, "I like to walk far enough off the road so people see a whitetail when they go by, if you know what I mean?"

Yeager was about 250 yards off the road, searching for a suitable spot, when he heard what he said sounded like a horse running.

"I thought, 'That's strange; who would be running a horse out here?' " said Yeager, a disabled veteran who served two years during the Persian Gulf War.

It sounded like it was coming from behind him so Yeager turned around. When he did so, he was shocked to see a big grizzly bearing down on him, literally and figuratively.

"He was really close," Yeager said. "I was smelling his breath."

There was nothing Yeager could do but react. He pulled the pistol from its holster and fired three point-blank shots at the bear, hitting him all three times.

"When I turned around I wasn't even sure it was a bear," said Yeager. "I just seen something brown coming at me.

"It happened real fast," he said. "The first shot turned him, which is a good thing because he was four feet from me. The second shot went in the left side and out the right side. The third shot was an aimed one. I was pulling back for a fourth shot when he collapsed."

The .460 Smith & Wesson is set up for hunting and Yeager is planning to use it to hunt white-tail deer this fall in the Lower 48.

After making sure the bear was dead, Yeager called friend Robert Nash on his cell phone to tell him the news and solicit his help in skinning and butchering the bear.

"It's not really the way I envisioned getting my first grizzly," admitted the 43-year-old Yeager, who has lived in Alaska for 15 years.

The bear turned out to be a big one as Interior grizzlies go. It measured 6-feet 3-inches from nose to tail and squared 6 1/2 feet. The skull measured almost 21 inches.

"Its a nice looking griz," confirmed taxidermist Kevin Hickman of Alaskan Precision Taxidermy, who prepped the hide for tanning. "It'll make a nice rug."

The bear's hide had six holes in it, as each of Yeager's three shots exited the animal, said Hickman.

Fortunately for Yeager, he had picked up a grizzly bear tag at Fred Meyer the day before he shot the bear or else he would have had to turn the hide and skull of the bear over to the state as a defense of life and property shooting. Yeager said all the hoopla surrounding a pair of grizzly bears that were seen a week before on Farmer's Loop prompted him to pick up a grizzly tag.

Based on the fact the bear was coming up behind him, Yeager figures he probably passed the bear at some point.

"I had to have walked right past him," he said.

Yeager suspects there was a bait station somewhere in the vicinity that the grizzly had been visiting.

"(The grizzly bear) had dog food and some kind of meat in its intestines," he said. "I think he was close to (a bait station) and I picked the wrong trail to go on and he thought I was going to his food source."

Instead, the grizzly turned out to be a food source for Yeager. He dropped the meat from the bear off at B-Y Farms and had 100 pounds of Italian and breakfast sausage made out of it. The meat tastes good, he said, even though grizzlies are not known for their meat.

"I am a meat hunter," proclaimed Yeager. "If I kill it I eat it."

In all the excitement, Yeager never did end up going to the bathroom.

"I've still got the roll of toilet paper in the front of my truck," he said.

That's his story and he's sticking to it.

[Deleted]

Ontario man kills bear with dog's help


By CP
www.torontosun.com/News/Canad...97276-sun.html

KITCHENER -- A Waterloo man and his dog made a harrowing escape from the clutches of a vicious black bear while portaging near Wawa.

Tom Tilley, 55, killed the nearly 200-pound bear by jumping on its back and stabbing the aggressive animal with a six-inch hunting knife after his dog alerted him and distracted the bear.

"Love is a very powerful emotion and my thought right away was: 'You're not going to kill my dog,'" Tilley said yesterday.

" I really consider my dog a hero.

"Without that first warning I would have had the bear clamping down on my neck."

An avid outdoorsman, Tilley had planned on spending 12 days portaging through the area near Wawa with his American Staffordshire, Sam.

Four days into the trip, he heard his dog growl and saw the bear closing in on him.

"That's when I knew I had a serious problem ... I was lunch," he said. That is until Sam placed himself between the bear and his owner.

"The bear took a few steps down the trail and clamped its mouth on the back of my dog," Tilley said.

"By attracting the bear's attention like that and distracting the bear from me it gave me the quick opportunity I needed to run around to the back of the bear, get on its back and with my knife start stabbing it."

[Gerry]

Berry season now!
Be prepared to share your bush with an ursa!

(Can I say that? )8-\