By Steve Hubrecht
The Columbia Valley is about mid-way through its ‘bear season’. As the Pioneer reported a month ago, bears that have spent the summer gobbling berries up in the mountains tend to come to the valley bottom, and into the valley’s communities, around the start of September each year. It’s now part way into October and the bruins are still here, roaming the streets in every Columbia Valley community, and they’ll likely continue to do so for another month yet.
“The update is that it is still exceptionally busy in terms of bear activity in the Columbia Valley,” local senior conservation officer Greg Kruger told the Pioneer. “All communities in the valley are seeing a higher than average number of calls (to conservation officers about bears).”
Kruger said the same trend is being seen throughout the Kootenay region and even across the province.
“The black bear population is clearly very healthy and increasing,” he said. “There has been a very high number of black bear sows with two or even three cubs in the valley this fall.”
One black bear sow with three cubs already made an appearance in the Pioneer a few weeks ago, and prompted conservation officers to put a sign, specifically depicting a mother bear and cubs, warning residents of Invermere’s Wilder subdivision of the ursine family’s presence there.
“We’re still monitoring them,” said Kruger, adding the sow and cubs seem to be moving in a circuit through Wilder, to the areas west of the Station Pub, up to Westside Road and the southernmost part of Invermere along Westside Road, then back again. They are foraging for natural food sources in town, principally fruit.
“There have been no issues in terms of public safety with that bear family,” said Kruger. “They’ve probably gotten into a little bit of garbage, but overall people in Wilder have been very good this fall about keeping their garbage secure, so the bears can’t access it, and they are primarily feeding on fruit. Ripe fruit on trees, or fruit that has fallen from trees . . . we’re hopeful they will move out of Invermere sooner rather than later, to find a place to hibernate out of town.”
There are also several single black bears within Invermere, noted Kruger. Conservation officers set a trap last week for one of these bears in the northern parts of upper Invermere, above the industrial park, after the bruin busted into a shed and broke a fence.
“The garbage (which was in the shed) was fairly secure, but the bear smelled it and broke through,” said Kruger.
The bear was not caught, so eventually conservation officers pulled out the trap.
Another trap was recently set in the unincorporated community of Juniper Heights after a bear broke into a shed there to get at chicken feed.
“Given the opportunity, bears will look at chickens as a food source, both the chickens themselves and chicken feed. There’s not many bear-chicken problems in Invermere, but certainly in other communities in the Columbia Valley, and up in Golden as well. Pet food, too, is an attractant,” said Kruger, asking valley residents to wait until the snow flies before putting up their bird feeders.
A bear that had been breaking into structures in Panorama Mountain Resort to get at grease traps was euthanized a few weeks ago – an outcome that Kruger emphasized conservation officers prefer to avoid whenever possible.
“There are bears out and about in all of our communities. The key message is to keep all food sources secure,” said Kruger, encouraging people to pick any ripe fruit off trees and to quickly pick up any fruit that falls on the ground.
“It’s the time of year when they (the bears) are desperate to put on those extra calories, so people need to be extra vigilant,” he said.
There’s even a technical term — hyperphagia — given to the biological drive that pushes bears to bulk up before the onset of winter.
“All black bears and grizzly bears experience it when the cold weather settles in. It’s a natural instinct and it gets them super focused on attaining food sources to put on fat, pre-hibernation time. It’s a natural event, and that’s why our black bear complaints spike at this time of year,” explained Kruger.
The bears usually stay in the valley bottom and towns for September, October and into November.
“It’s weather dependent. If it’s a warmer fall, they’ll stay out (in town, not hibernating) as long as they are finding food sources. They often stay through Halloween to the end of October and into the first week of November. That’s typically when the bears here start to hibernate and when, all of a sudden, our call volume (of complaints relating to bears) drops off dramatically,” Kruger told the Pioneer, adding, “so there’s still a lot of time to go — one more month, basically.”
Anyone wanting to report bear activity or who witnesses bear-human conflicts should call the Report All Poachers and Polluters (RAPP) hot line at 1-877-952-7277.
“We will work with people to find solutions to these issues,” said Kruger.