The volume of bears being put down in PG still high: Northern Bear Awareness Society

The Northern Bear Awareness Society believes people in Prince George still aren’t getting the message when it comes to attracting bears onto their property.

So far, 26 bears have been put down this year due to them becoming too habituated with the public or because of food sources.

Spokesperson Dave Bakker says the recent snowfall won’t be enough to scare them away if they don’t have enough food.

“With the snowfall and the colder temperatures all the natural food sources, of course, are gone because a bear’s diet is about 85% plant material but if attractants are still available in neighbourhoods, just because they reach that weight that’s required, it doesn’t mean they stop eating.”

The figures have remained consistent over the past five years, it’s mainly due to residents not taking the proper precautions.

“Last year it was 40 Bears, two years ago it was 20, the year before that it was 45, so it’s very consistent and the reason they are destroyed is that they are attracted into our neighbourhood.”

Bakker adds it’s up to the public in order to pare down the number of bears being destroyed.

“Destroying bears year after year does not have a long-term solution, it’s very short-sighted. In Prince George, we live in the middle of a forest and if we don’t want bears or if we fear bears being in our neighbourhood, the best thing we can do is to not attract them.”

Bakker isn’t a fan of relocation either.

“The success rate is probably less than 30%. Quite simply, you’re taking a bear from one area where it knows where food sources are, you’re dropping it into another area where it doesn’t know where the food sources are, which might be the territory of another bear.”

“When traps are set out, that bear is not going to be released, it is going to be destroyed as the trap is set because of a bear being deemed too habituated to people or food conditions. When a bear is given one of those two titles, that the end, there is no second chance for a bear that’s caught in a trap.”

He says every April to November is when people need to be storing their attractants to avoid encounters.