A young black bear was killed after being hit by a car on Tsleil-Waututh Nation lands, Monday.
North Vancouver RCMP were called to the 3000-block of Dollarton Highway just before 2 p.m. after the young female apparently darted out on to the road and collided with a car.
RCMP members called for assistance from conservation officers but the bear had died from its injuries by the time the first car arrived.
The driver's vehicle sustained some damage, but not enough to require a tow truck, according to North Vancouver RCMP.
"It must have been awful (for the driver). I'm just glad the bear was killed on the road, not injured and pursued in pain off in the fog somewhere," said Christine Miller, education co-ordinator for the North Shore Black Bear Society.
Miller learned from a park ranger at the scene the bear was a yearling that had been reported to the society several times in recent months. It was also, apparently, malnourished.
"Obviously, it wasn't doing very well in its search for food," Miller said.
At the end of July, Miller received a disturbing report about a bruin from a home on nearby Roche Place.
"It had actually tapped on the window and looked in the window. I was very concerned about that," Miller said, noting it indicated one of two things: "(Either) the bear is very young and naïve and not having a clue how he should behave in a community or somebody had been feeding him. Either way was a bad situation for the bear."
Strangely, the bear's ear was tagged, indicating it had been relocated once before, but conservation officers haven't moved any similar bears from the area in the last year or two, Miller said.
No one from the conservation office was available to say where the tag had come from.
While the society usually cranks out education and signage that warns people to keep their yards free of attractants, Miller noted the garbage cans at nearby Cates Park were overflowing with picnic leftovers, during a recent trip.
Miller said people should consider taking their picnic garbage home with them in an effort to make the parks less appealing to bears.
