Black bear shot in Kananaskis campground

A conservation officer has shot an Alberta black bear after it rummaged through food in a campsite, unconcerned about campers shouting and banging pots to scare it off.

The incident happened at Mount Kidd RV Park in Kananaskis Country, west of Calgary.

A warning had been posted in the area about black bears, which had already knocked over a barbecue, said conservation officer Nick Dykshoorn.

A wildlife officer spotted the adult female bear Saturday morning and followed the bear in his vehicle.

"By the time he got around to the next loop over in Mount Kidd RV Park he could hear the commotion. There were some folks that had seen the bear and were banging pots and pans, yelling at it, trying to scare it," said Dykshoorn.

The officer shouted and the bear retreated. But the noise didn’t scare the bear away for long and it returned to get at some food in a campsite.

"They seemed like new campers — not much experience in the back country at all — so their food was basically mounded up and I believe they had maybe a tarp or a mosquito covering or something over top of it," he said. "This bear was determined to get at it."

The officer decided to shoot the bear because it didn’t seem at all afraid of the people and posed too great of a risk to public safety, said Dykshoorn.

Another female black bear died overnight Monday after getting hit by a vehicle on the Trans-Canada Highway east of Lac Des Arcs.