Black bear stops for breakfast at N.W.T. campsite

An Inuvik couple camping at Gwich'in Territorial Park had an unexpected guest at breakfast last Friday: a hungry black bear.

"Yes, I think he smelled breakfast cooking," said Gail McLaughlin.

McLaughlin says her husband was cooking toast, bacon and eggs in their trailer, when "I looked out the window and said to my husband: 'There's a bear on the table!'"

That day, according to McLaughlin, the bear visited the popular campground on the Dempster Highway between Inuvik and Tsiigehtchic — twice.

The brown phase black bear — that is, a black bear with a temporary brown coat — looked at first like a grizzly.

"When I first saw him, my husband went to the door of the trailer and started banging, trying to scare him away," she said, "and he didn't want to leave. He just went to the edge of the campsite."

Eventually, the couple was able to chase the bear away, and quickly clear any food the bear hadn't already eaten.

"He had eaten a whole loaf of bread, a pound of butter. Foil and all."

The couple usually camps at Gwich'in twice a year. They say they'll be back, even with their unexpected visitor.