Conservation officers are making a special effort to convince Carisbrooke residents to lock up their edibles this week in the hope they can prevent a relocated black bear and its two cubs from returning to the area.

The five-year-old sow and its offspring came to the attention of the B.C. Conservation Officer Service Sept. 2 when residents of a home on St. James Road west of Princess Park spotted the animals on their property.

The officer who responded watched the animals for a while, and concluded they had become habituated to humans: The bears stood passively as residents approached them to take pictures; and one of the cubs even walked right up to the officer, apparently looking for food.

“It makes me suspicious the cub has had a very good experience with a human,” said Simon Gravel, the officer who attended the call. It’s likely the animal has been fed in the past, he said.

“That was very sad to see.”

It appears the bears were foraging over a significant area, with sightings later reported as far away as Lonsdale Avenue and Kings Road. They had been attracted primarily by the large number of berries in residents’ backyards and by other fruit, said Gravel.

The officer canvassed the neighbourhood, asking homeowners to seal away their garbage and do what they could to remove other attractants. People were co-operative, he said, but the effort wasn’t enough.

A resident called the service the next day to say the bears were back. This time they had set up a base in a nearby yard to which they were dragging garbage from other areas.

Gravel returned and tranquilized the animals, loaded them into a cage and drove them to the Seymour watershed, where he released them.

The solution is only temporary, however. Gravel couldn’t take the bears very far, he said. If he had dropped them in a competing bear’s territory, they would likely have been attacked and killed, since they were relatively small individuals. As a result, the animals will probably make their way back toward Carisbrooke.

Gravel just hopes he has bought himself enough time to convince the neighbours to rid their yards altogether of the attractants that brought the bears to the area in the first place.

If the animals come back and start trying to break into homes, they will likely be shot, he said.

jweldon@nsnews.com