A human-habituated bear had to be euthanized after it kept returning to the more populated areas of Chilliwack.
The young bear had been hanging around residential areas near the Vedder River trying to fatten up the for winter in early October.
The bear sightings were the subject of half a dozen RAPP-line reports before a conservation officer with the B.C. Conservation Officer Service tranquilized the animal near the RCMP’s Pacific Regional Training Centre and relocated it to the back country.
The bear was trucked about 40 kilometres up the Chilliwack River Valley in a trailer and released. Conservation officials and some neighbours had hoped it would adapt and stay in its new area, but CO Marc Plamondon told The Progress that it made its way back and had been aggressive.
At one point the bear tried to get into an angler’s cooler but some folks at the river’s edge scared it away. The animal had also been photographed on more than one occasion getting into bird feeders in the riverside neighbourhoods.
“Yes, the bear has been euthanized due to public safety concerns,” Plamondon said in an emailed response to questions about the bear’s fate.
“It was the same bear that had been relocated at the end of September from the PRTC.”
The COS said they had received multiple reports about this bear, including some “aggressive behaviour towards people” and getting into attractants, since its return to the area on Oct. 6.
READ MORE: Bear tranquilized and relocated
READ MORE: Bear returns to Vedder River area
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