Aggressive grizzly bear harasses Dempster Highway travellers

Yukon wildlife officials are warning people travelling on the Dempster Highway to watch out for a bold grizzly bear that may have been involved in two recent encounters with travellers.

"We believe it's probably the same grizzly bear, given the behaviour of that bear," said conservation officer Aaron Koss-Young.

Both incidents happened between highway kilometres 230 and 270, and within a couple of weeks of each other.

Two weeks ago, a cyclist from New Zealand reported being chased by a grizzly that tried to grab a pannier bag. He managed to repel it with bear spray.

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Then, over the weekend, officials say a motorcyclist was reportedly approached by a bear "with intent."

"The motorcyclist had to back up approximately a kilometre," Koss-Young said.

He advises anybody travelling the Dempster to take precautions or simply avoid the area. Cyclists, in particular, should be sure to have bear spray handy at all times, he said.

Fed by people

Yukon conservation officers have been dealing with a number of aggressive bear incidents this year, Koss-Young said, and "a lot of them still seem to focus around bears being fed along roadways."

He says some bears were killed by officers near Contact Creek, on the Alaska Highway, on Monday night because the animals seemed habituated and dangerous.

"They'd been fed by people to the point where they were aggressively approaching and trying to to climb in and on vehicles,' he said.  

Koss-Young couldn't say, though, whether the bothersome Dempster Highway bear might be killed, or re-located.

"Those are all options that we have to assess once we've been able to identify this bear, and establish what kind of behaviour it's exhibiting — and what the best options are, for the bear's future."

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