Hungry Canadian bears find death in the city

Amateur videotape of a young grizzly bear wandering around a landfill

From Correspondent Rick Lockridge

March 3, 2000
Web posted at: 3:48 p.m. EST (2048 GMT)

GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST, British Columbia (CNN) -- A salmon population collapse has forced grizzlies to forage around landfills and houses in British Colombia, but the hungry bears now face more perils.

Concerned by threats to human safety, residents and wildlife rangers have shot more than a dozen bears, some of them black bears but most of them the more dangerous grizzlies.

Not everyone supports the killings; some environmentalists recommend non-lethal alternatives.

"They wouldn't run away when dogs were attacking them. They literally were hanging around the houses, and around the school, right in the downtown part of the community," said Jim Foulton of the David Suzuki Foundation, a Canadian environmental organization that works to conserve British Columbia's coastal rainforest.

The bears have become familiar but unwelcome sights to humans, attracted to garbage around homes and in open landfills.

A dwindling salmon population has prompted bears to look elsewhwere for food

"The landfill can serve as school of bad habits to teach bears to associate people with food," said Matt Austin of British Columbia's Ministry of Environment.

The steadily worsening salmon shortage has prompted growing concern. A remote community of the Owekino Indian Nation also depends on the fish for food.

Environmentalists attribute the shortage to overfishing and poor logging practices that allow choking sediments to run into streams.

"I think it's clear that it's more than a coincidence that large-scale industrial overcutting in that area has played a role in the decline of the salmon resource," Foulton said.

Conservation officers worry that most bears went into hibernation undernourished last year, and may cause even more trouble when they emerge this spring.

"They have very little fat on them and this was in October, at the time of year when we would expect them to be almost at their maximum weight," Austin said.

VIDEO Correspondent Rick Lockridge reports on the problems faced by some starving bears in Canada and what conservationists and governments are trying to do to protect both bear and man. Windows Media 28K 80K     MESSAGE BOARD Animal world

Wildlife officials and environmentalists agree that something must be done to control the animals. But some think that killing bears is unnecessary.

"This large number of bears simply should not have been shot on the spot the way they were. There were alternatives," Foulton said.

Some environmentalists think relocation is a viable option to killing. But British Columbia's Environment Division disagrees.

"We are really just shuffling the problem around as opposed to dealing with the root cause," Austin said.

Most relocated bears try to return home, according to wildlife officials. Others become stressed, fail to mate and become nuisances in their unfamiliar surroundings.

This black bear was one of the unlucky ones

Without sufficient natural food supplies, relocating bears merely postpones the inevitable, causing a slower and more painful death, experts say.

"It's really a tragic situation from our perspective. Something we are very concerned about in terms of the future," Austin said.

Yet people can improve the situation, wildlife officials say. "There are things we can do to manage our garbage. How we manage our compost, things of that nature," he said.

The Owekino Nation is considering a proposal to clean up the landfill. But solving the salmon shortage will require years of government effort.

"Restoring salmon in the Owekino Lake drainage is going to be a long-term process," Austin said.

Spare the salmon and reap the revenue, report says
February 7, 2000
NMFS outlines options for Northwest salmon
November 19, 1999
Grizzly bear 'troublemakers' get second chance at sanctuary
September 18, 1999
Plan jeopardizes grizzlies, groups say
August 18, 1999

British Columbia's Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.