Folks in the Inter River neighbourhood are beside themselves this week after a local, notable bear was tranquilized and relocated a few kilometres up Lynn Creek.
The bear’s recent appearances on social media seemingly playing with playground equipment were cute but they do signify a much larger problem – a bear that is habituated to humans. We have a bad habit of anthropomorphizing bears, forgetting they are indeed wildlife.
Thankfully, incidents in which humans are harmed by wildlife are extremely rare but it is unfair for the bears that inevitably end up getting shot due to our bad habits.
There is some irony in that it was the District of North Vancouver’s garbage bin that appears to have kept this bear hanging around the park when it should be district staff handing out bylaw infraction tickets to people and businesses who have failed to keep their yards free of attractants. In the bigger picture, that is a much larger problem across the North Shore.
Sadly, we predict this bear will be back in the news this year and not for good reasons. “Problem bears” only get one get-out-of-jail-free card and their urge to return to familiar territory and food sources is overwhelming. Next time, it will be a shotgun slug, not a tranquilizer dart. This ursine is on borrowed time.
But for all the other bears that haven’t fallen under the spell of garbage, bird feeders, tree fruit and barbecue grease, it’s not too late. The friendliest thing we could do for the bears is make our neighbourhoods unfriendly places for them to be. That means not allowing them easy meals, and using our cellphones to call conservation officers not to record videos for Facebook.
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