Mother bear and 2 yearling cubs shot by conservation officers in Port Moody
Bears had lost their fear of humans and were subject of many complaints going back to last fall
A mother bear and two yearling cubs have been shot by conservation officers in Port Moody. A third yearling got away.
Insp. Murray Smith of the Conservation Officers Service says he's not certain, but it's likely the bears were the same ones shown frolicking in a video taken Monday in the Heritage Mountain neighbourhood.
Smith says the bears had lost their fear of humans.
"We had ten reports in the last two weeks of these bears breaking into buildings and getting into unsecured garbage," he said. "And last fall we had numerous, extensive calls on these bears."
The City of Port Moody, which posted the bear video earlier this week, wrote on its Facebook page: "We are deeply saddened, however we hope that some good will come of this by raising awareness of the importance of eliminating bear attractants."
Relocation not an option
On Wednesday evening conservation officers were called to a home on Heritage Mountain after the bears were discovered eating garbage in a residential garage.
Smith said relocation was not an option with the bears.
"In the fall every attempt was made to give them a chance to become wild bears. Our hope was they would go into the den, then come out and go back to the wild. But they continue to go back to the bad habits they had before," he said.
"As soon as bears look at humans as a source of food they're not good candidates to relocate because wherever we relocate them there's going to be humans and they look at humans as a food source opportunity."
Smith said the surviving yearling will likely suffer the same fate as the rest of its family because the bear has now become used to humans.
"At the end of the day it's up to the public to ensure there's no attractants available from their households that are keeping the bears in the neighbourhood," said Smith.
"Destroying bears is something conservation officers hate doing."