The Northern Bear Awareness Society says Prince George residents shouldn’t rest easy after a dramatic drop in black bear deaths last year.
According to the BC Conservation Officer Service, eight black bears were killed in our city in 2024, a far cry from the 76 that were dispatched a year earlier (2023).
Spokesperson, Lisa Cran told MyPGNow.com there is a simple reason for the sharp decline.
“There are not as many bears around, unfortunately, because of humans. We have tracked the statistics over a couple of decades and there is a trend that about every decade there is a high followed by a low and then it starts to come back up.”
Cran added while we tallied fewer bear deaths doesn’t me we can be lax in our approach from preventing human-bear interactions in 2025.
“Just because we had a low number last year, which is good for the bears, they didn’t have as many bears die, that is what we want but it doesn’t mean we as humans can become lax on our preventative measures to secure our attractants.”
She is once again calling on the City of Prince George to fund bear-resistant containers that have been previously tested.
“It is a step that is better than nothing and what we need is the City of Prince George to step up and make a difference and fund the bear-resistant containers. We would like to see fully automated ones so that it makes it easier on the residence, they don’t have to fumble with latches and locks.”
“We need to maintain vigilance on securing our garbage number one. That is the top cause of the bear deaths and all the other attractants such as bird feeders, pet food, barbecues, compost and fruit-bearing trees and bushes.”
According to the Conservation Officer Service, 2024 had the lowest number of black bears dispatched across the province in more than a decade with 303.
That’s a 49.7 per cent drop from 603 in 2023.
They add it’s also the lowest number since the predator statistics were first released online in 2011.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
