It’s that time of year again, the time when bears are coming down from the alpine in search of other food sources before they go into hibernation for the winter.
Conservation officers Alex Desjardins and Dan Bartol say this year there have been very few bears in town to date, and a lot of that has to do with people’s attitudes, and the addition of bear-proof garbage cans.
If bears are less likely to access food sources in town, chances are they will stay away. This year, only four bears have been killed due to habituation and human-wildlife conflict.
In 2016, conservation officers said there were 15 bears killed. Since then, the Town of Golden has begun introducing bear-proof garbage bins to residents on the perimeter of the town, where bears are most likely to find easy access to non natural food sources.
“It’s been a relatively good year for the number of conflicts we’ve had, compared to certain years,” Bartol said. “Typically, spring and fall is when we have the most interaction.”
Keeping fruit trees picked and cleaned up off the ground, properly storing garbage bins, and ensuring bear proof bins are locked are the best ways to limit the amount of conflicts in town.
Most of the bears that come into town are black bears, and once they are habituated, it is difficult to relocate them. They will either find their way back to town, displace a healthy black bear in the wild, or become harder to trap the next time because they have learned from past experiences.
“Every single individual is treated as an individual, based on the behaviour it has displayed, what kind of bear we’re dealing with,” Bartol said. “Typically black bears that come right into the community that have been food conditioned and habituated to human presence, those really aren’t candidates for relocation.”
Right now, the bears are in a stage called hyperphagia, which is when they eat as much as possible, and consume around 20,000 calories per day.
“As soon as they go in the den, they start degrading their fat reserves without consuming external food sources. So, the fatter they go into hibernation, the better chance they have of survival through the winter,” Desjardins said. “Very often, when bears still have food, they will stay up as long as they have food available. When you look at more remote valleys, as soon as the blanket of snow comes in, they don’t have food and they go to hibernate. But in urban areas, if food is still available to them, they will stay out.”
In some places, like on the West Coast, bears won’t hibernate at all because of the warmer temperatures and the availability of non natural food sources.
Conservation officers have been working with the Town of Golden council, the bylaw officer, and WildSafeBC to ensure residents are being bear smart, following bylaws, and have fruit trees properly cleaned up.
“Really, all it takes is one person to create a bad bear,” Bartol said.
To report any human-wildlife conflicts in the community, call the Report All Poachers and Polluters number at 1-877-952-7277.