A Prince George woman is warning people in her area of a roaming bear.
Jessica Smith lives in the Davis Road and Charella Drive area, and said for the past two weeks, the bear has been at their door almost every night. She wrote in a Facebook post earlier today (Tuesday) that the bear is “very aggressive and covered in ticks.”
Though they’ve shot bear bangers off and have a 120 pound German Shepard, it has not deterred the bear so far.
She said they are diligent about keeping their garbage and other food sources locked up but attribute the attention to a previous owner that did not.
This sits in line with information from Dave Bakker of the Northern Bear Awareness Society, who has said before that bears remember where the food is coming from.
However, he said he would be surprised if the bear was covered in ticks.
“He’s probably just losing his winter coat, a lot of bears at this time of year start losing that. Bears aren’t really known to get infested with ticks, I’m not dismissing that it is that, but I’ve never heard of it yet up here.”
Smith said the bear she saw only has fur on its butt, “The aggressiveness is what is starting to make me think he has ticks, and a lot of the moose that we have back there are very tick infested as well.”
Ticks or not, Smith wanted to warn everyone in the area about the possible dangers.
“I have a lot of neighbours with small dogs and a lot of people walk up here, their kids play at the end of the road and there is a park at the end of the road as well. I just don’t want anyone near this thing if it decides to come out.”
Because of the vicinity of her home to the forest, Smith said the Conservation Service is unable to put traps out.