'It was game over' for brazen black bear seeking campers' food in Kananaskis Country

KANANASKIS – A brazen black bear was shot and killed by provincial wildlife officers after fearlessly seeking food from campers at Spray Lakes West Campground in Kananaskis Country on the Canada Day long weekend.

As families were camping and kids were running around in the woods and by the lake at the Spray Lakes Provincial Park campground, the bold black bear approached people, ripped a tent, stomped on camper vans and daringly grabbed food from picnic tables where campers sat.

Nick de Ruyter, program director for Bow Valley WildSmart, said the black bear was cruising in and around campsites on Friday evening (June 28) where he was camping with his wife and children, aged 7 and 8, and friends.

“The next morning, the bear was literally inches from my head – because I sleep in a tent – and I could hear it breathing,” he said.

“It also went past a friend’s tent and it actually left what looked like, from the movie The Wolverine, big scratch marks in the tent fly," he added.

“They didn’t have any food in their tent and they didn’t even realize that it happened until the next morning when they woke up.”

The gutsy bear was clearly unafraid of people but never showed signs of aggression, said de Ruyter, who noted it had likely been fed or gotten into human food over the years and was heavily food-conditioned.

He said the bear also reportedly damaged the campground manager’s trailer and also climbed onto the hood of a camper van.

“There were paw prints on the hood and the windshield,” he said.

Conservation officers were called to the campground on Friday night, and returned to set up traps to catch the bear on Saturday as the emboldened bear continued roaming throughout the lakeside campground.

“I think eventually the bear, while people were sitting at a table, took food from their table,” he said. “After that, it was game over for the bear.”

Conservation officers shot and killed the bear on Saturday afternoon, said de Ruyter.

“We did all hear the gunshots,” he said.

When bears become food-conditioned and associate people with food, de Ruyter said they pose a risk to public safety and conservation officers had little choice but to kill the bear.

“Even after being deterred, even after being sprayed, to be that determined to still continue coming back to the picnic tables and trying to get food from people, a bear can’t recover from that,” he said.

“That level of food-conditioning has gone too far and there’s really no other option.”

At one point, the bear just stood on the edge of de Ruyter’s campsite about three to four metres away.

“I was yelling, shouting, holding a chair over my head and it couldn’t care less about me; it didn’t even flinch and would just stand there staring at me,” he said.

The events of the weekend are a good reminder to campers to keep bear spray readily accessible at campsites.

“The key takeaway from the weekend is always have your bear spray with you, like have it on your body, have it handy with you while you're camping because you never know when a bear might walk into your campsite,” de Ruyter said.

Numerous times, kids bumped into the bear as they were coming back and forth from campsites to the lake. If camping with children, de Ruyter said to remind them that there are bears around and to stay close by.

“There were kids playing all over the woods and the bear was just cruising around through those areas,” he said.

“But the good thing is these were all Canmore kids and they all did a good job. They all knew what to do. They were making noise and yelling at the bear to get away.”

The last word of advice from de Ruyter is never leave food unattended at a campsite – even for a minute.

“You just never know,” he said, adding campers should always store their food in hard-sided trailers, vehicles or bear-proof food lockers.

A spokesperson for Alberta Parks was not immediately available.