MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY – Longtime Sundre-area residents Maria and Kenneth Stauffer would like to see a large black bear that has been roaming around the Cougar Creek subdivision where they live be trapped and relocated out of the area.
Located eight kilometres west of Sundre and about three kilometres north of the Red Deer River, the subdivision has nine lots and eight houses, at legal land description NW 26-32-6-W5.
The large bruin, estimated to weigh about 300 kilograms, was on Oct. 15 recorded rummaging through garbage cans at the property on a game camera set up by the Stauffers.
“It’s a shock to us to have a 500 pound bear 20 feet from our home,” said Maria. “We are sort of trapped in our house really when you think about it. We want to let the community know that we have this bear walking around the houses.”
She said when she took a walk on the property last week that she smelled the animal.
“I didn’t realize we had the bear out here because it wasn’t until the 15th that we got the pictures on the game camera,” she said. “The bear must have walked through the woods just ahead of me a few minutes earlier if I could smell it in the air.
“I have a greenhouse here and I can’t walk to the greenhouse because I don’t know where the bear is. It’s very dangerous actually. I can’t walk the dog or anything.”
It is the first time they have seen or recorded a black bear around the subdivision, she said.
“Our concern is that within a couple miles of our subdivision there are more than 50 acreages in several other surrounding residential subdivisions,” she said.
A Fish and Wildlife officer came to the property at the request of the Stauffers after the bear was recorded on the trail camera.
Maria said, “He said we have to take care of the bear ourselves. He said Ken could shoot the bear if he wanted to because it is on our own private property.
“We thought Fish and Wildlife would want to bring their bear cage (trap) out here and get the bear and take it out someplace, but he said they are very busy.”
Ken said he has no desire to kill the bear.
“I’m interested in protecting the bear,” said Ken. “I don’t want to shoot him. He’s a beautiful bear, but if he causes me any problem I’ll have to shoot him.”
Asked for a comment, Ian Roddick, a communications advisor with Alberta Justice and Solicitor General, provided a statement to the Albertan.
“Our officers take all reports of bears in public areas very seriously, and stand ready to deploy traps and take other protective measures as needed and appropriate,” Roddick said.
“Before we set up traps in any area where bears are being drawn by food sources to populated areas, we always ask residents to remove attractants like keeping garbage bins inside a shed or garage until the morning of pickup or secure bin lids with ratchet straps or bungee cords.”
Bear attractants can include things such as garbage bins, bird feeders, pet foot as well as apple and other fruit-bearing ornamental trees, he said.
“We continue to encourage residents to call in all bear sightings, day or night, to the Report-A-Poacher line at 1-800-642-3800 so officers are aware of the animals and can act to protect public safety,” he said.
Roddick did not immediately respond to a follow-up inquiry on whether officers plan to trap the bear at Cougar Creek.
