Fish and Wildlife officers sharpen skills

A dozen Fish and Wildlife officers from across the region took part in a two-day training exercise last week aimed at sharpening their skills when dealing with bear and cougar attacks.

Held at several locations in Sundre on Aug. 20 and 21, the exercise was one of several being held across the province, said Ron Wiebe, an inspector with the Southern Region Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Branch.

The Sundre exercise included a mock response scene located in a wooded area along the east bank of the Red Deer River just north of Highway 27.

“It is called predatory attack training,” said Wiebe. “Although our officers are well trained, this is bringing things to that next level of excellence and setting them up for knowledge on what they need to achieve and not achieve in regards to immediate response.

“We are hoping our officers will be ready and prepared mentally for these type of scenarios and ensure that we provide the best possible response to the public.

“This is a specific new two-day session that all our officers in the province are going to go through. As for the overall training, the larger picture stuff, we’ve been doing that for a number of years. Now we are trying to get more of it out to all the people and sharpening the skills.”

Officers involved in the exercise came from across the region, including from Cochrane and Sundre.

The first day of the exercise involved classroom work.

“We went over the paperwork portion of things, what our policies are, and identify concerns and procedures that we want to follow,” he said.

The second day involved officers responding to a mock bear attack scenario, he said.

“Essentially we created a fatality scene where a bear mauled somebody and we allowed the officers the opportunity to go in in a safe fashion, and work their way through the investigation all the way to the point of finding the person and coming back out,” he said.

“It’s dealing essentially with maulings, which could be predation upon a person and it might be a fatality or a non-fatality. Either way we prepare for that and what officers need to do.”

Maulings in the province typically involve cougars, grizzly bears and black bears, he said.

“It could also apply to some of the bigger, more dangerous ungulates such as moose,” he said.

Responding to maulings typically involves several actions by officers, he said.

“When the officer gets the call they try to confirm with the complainant what the evidence is and where they have to go,” he said. “Once they get to the location, they will try to determine specifically what has happened.

“If they can, and they believe it to be a predatory animal, they will go in with a team or a group of people who can successfully go in and determine if the animal is still on the victim.

“If the animal is still on the victim, they will potentially kill that animal. Once that has been done they will potentially start looking at removal of the victim, if the victim is still alive.”

If the victim has been killed, then an investigation is conducted “just as the case would be with any homicide,” he said.

“If the victim is not alive, then we will look at what has to happen,” he said. “Then we are dealing with scene security after that, at which time we try to preserve evidence and make sure everything is safe.”

Wildlife officers often interact with other responders such as police and medical staff when attending mauling scenes, he said.

“Once we’ve determined that something is a fatality it is actually the jurisdiction of the police and the medical examiner,” he said.

“So at that point we notify them and we turn the investigation over to them until we receive recommendations on how to proceed from the medical examiner.”

The two-day Sundre exercise was a great learning experience and worthwhile for the officers involved, he said.

“Our number 1 key is public safety, making sure that the public is OK as well as our officers,” he said.