La fin de la saison de l'ours

Queenie's moving on from the bear thing now. Himself in Alberta saw five black bears in one day last week and didn't get eaten or mauled, or clawed or even stood on once. Besides, they'll all be asleep soon, it being the winter and all.

He also saw a big black wolf run across the road one night. When I logged onto www.wolf.org to find out which type it was, the front page went "aoooooooh". Very creepy. So yeah wolves.....wolves are the new bears.

But before we start with that, in honour of this summer's great obsession, here are the last two shaggy bear stories (histoires shaggy d'ours):

French bear BBQ results in Trichinellosis

TORONTO (CP) - Ten French hunters who ate meat from a black bear they killed during a trip to Canada are being treated for the parasitic disease trichinellosis and several of them remain in a Paris hospital. Four other people who ate bear meat after the hunters transported it home to France have also contracted the potentially fatal infection, Dr. Jean Dupouy-Camet of University Hospital in Paris said Wednesday.

The 10 men killed the black bear Aug. 30 during a hunting trip to northern Quebec, barbecuing some of the meat the same day. Two of the men brought back bear meat when they returned to their homes in central and southern France. Some of the meat was shared with six relatives during a meal in early September; three of the people at that meal subsequently got infected with the parasite, Dupouy-Camet said. At another meal about a week later at which bear was served, seven more people ingested the infected meat.

Hungry Bears in Alberta

CALGARY (CP) - Calgary officials say black bears have started wandering into city neighbourhoods because they're hungry. Authorities say two cubs have been spotted in the Evergreen area over the last couple of weeks, while another black bear was seen around Black Diamond recently. Bill Bruce, with the city's animal services, is asking residents living along the Fish Creek corridor to stay alert when walking in the area and to report all bear activity. Officials also warn people to stay away from the animals and not to feed them.
Alderman Diane Colley-Urquhart says some residents are apprehensive about having bears in such close proximity to their homes. She says when you live on the fringes of the city, you're going to come in contact with wildlife.

"But that doesn't help when they're startled by these bears," said Colley-Urquhart. "What's assuring is that the cubs are easily scared and just a yell will send them running." Bruce said there have been no reported incidents involving the animals.

"The bears that come into the city are not terribly aggressive," he said, adding anywhere from one to three bears are caught within the Calgary limits each year.

"At this time of year, a bear has to eat the equivalent of 56 Big Macs each day... they have to store enough energy to get them through hibernation."
(Calgary Sun)

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