It's not all one-sided you know! Man Bites Bear!

Bear kill numbers hit 23 in Red Lake

BY BRYAN MEADOWS
NORTHWEST BUREAU

Looking at the numbers of dangerous bears killed in Red Lake this summer, the community could gain the dubious distinction of nuisance bear capital of Ontario 2005. As of Monday, 23 bears have been killed in the municipality by Ministry of Natural Resources staff or provincial police. And, just a short drive south, in Ear Falls, three bears have been destroyed. The bears appear to be more brazen than normal this year, MNR Red Lake District enforcement supervisor Dave Anderson said Monday.

They're wandering main streets close to schools and between parked cars, he said, adding some bears are not only coming out at night, but in the middle of the day. "It's like they're taking shifts or something."
Anderson stressed that officers normally kill bears only as a last resort.

Most of the bears destroyed were "repeat offenders," bears that were trapped and relocated, and then wandered back into the community. And they were exhibiting aggressive behaviour. Anderson said there's very little food in the bush and bears are coming into town to dine on garbage, fruit trees, barbecue grills and bird feeders.

"We've got the garbage problem a bit under control," but he said some people are still putting their garbage out too early for pickup, or not storing it properly. Some bears had ripped open screens on homes, or were half-way into buildings when officers arrived, Anderson said. Some didn't run away, but headed toward the officers when approached, he said.

"It's really becoming nasty . . . there's a real concern for public safety."

The nuisance bear situation is better in other Northwest communities, but concerns remain. In Dryden where city police deem any bear in a residential neighbourhood a threat, 10 animals have been destroyed. Two bears have been killed in Thunder Bay and Red Rock; and one each in Marathon and Kenora. MNR spokeswoman Jolanta Kowalski said Monday that the number of nuisance bear "occurrences" is down slightly from last year.

As of Sept. 11, there were 7,491 calls to the province's BearWise hotline that required response by the ministry, compared to 7,867 last year. Overall, calls to the hotline are down about 2,400 from the 12,876 calls recorded to Sept. 14, 2004.

Meanwhile, conservation groups have renewed their call for a return of the spring black bear hunt after a Cambridge, Ont., woman was attacked and killed by a black bear on Sept. 6 in Missinaibi Lake Provincial Park, north of Chapleau. Thunder Bay-based Northwestern Ontario Sportsmen's Alliance maintains the hunt would be an effective tool in managing the province's burgeoning number of black bears.

"The government is afraid of bears and they have every right to be when our government officials make excuses for not having a black bear management strategy in place that is even remotely effective," said NOSA president John Kaplanis.

Although NOSA acknowledges that nuisance bears will always be a fact of life in the North, Kaplanis said the group also believes the MNR has a responsibility to protect humans and their property in a meaningful manner by allowing a harvest of bears each year that will reduce number to a point where dangerous and nuisance encounters occur less frequently.

© 2005 The Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal. All rights reserved.