Bear trap set at Riverside RV Village

Fish and wildlife officers set a bear trap at Riverside RV Village in Sundre last week, after receiving several complaints of a bear rooting through garbage and clamouring at bird feeders in the subdivision.

Officers did trap a small black bear on Friday in a different trap located about four miles west of town, which they believe is the same bear. The bear was relocated and the trap was pulled from Riverside RV Village yesterday.

The trap at Riverside RV Village had been set for more than one week, which is longer than officers would normally leave a trap out, according to Adam Mirus, fish and wildlife officer for the Sundre-Olds area.

He said a bear trap is usually left out for three or four days, unless bear sightings continue to occur, as they had been for a couple of weeks at Riverside RV Village.

"The problem is if we're not getting sightings, we don't want to bring in bears that may be just passing through town or something like that," said Mirus.

Although officers relocated the bear, Mirus said there was a possibility they were going to have to destroy it.

Officers have been forced to put down a few bears over the last few months because members of the public are leaving garbage and bird feeders out.

"So even if we go put him somewhere, he's going to start wandering until he finds that stuff again," he said.

"It's the situation that they get into and sometimes that situation is caused by the public. That forces us to either put down the animal or move it to a location that's far away."

Officers have caught four bears in the area over the last couple of months.

"We've released a couple of them and we've had to destroy a couple of them," he said.

After a bear is trapped, officers determine if the bear can be relocated to a place where it will be able to resume its natural habitat. If the bear has become reliant on unnatural food sources, such as garbage or bird feeders, it may have to be put down.

"In some cases some of the people aren't willing to clean up the garbage," he said. "We can't even start to begin if the public is not willing to clean up their garbage."

Jane Bicknell, secretary for the Mountain View BearSmart Society, said birdseed is a high calorie food and bears will not pass up the opportunity, especially during this time of year when they are preparing for hibernation.

"If a bear is in your yard, the best thing is to try and scare that bear away. You don't want to make it a good experience for him to come into your yard," said Bicknell.

"You don't want him to find something to eat, be it birdseed, compost, garbage, apples, fruits on the trees and bushes."

She noted that people living in subdivisions should especially remove bird feeders and other attractants from their yards, to be considerate of their neighbours.

"There is a big push now for them to eat as much as they possibly can, so they do spend a lot of time moving and looking for food," she said.

Gary Coombe, vice-president of the Riverside RV Village board of directors, said residents leaving garbage out was part of what attracted the bear to the area.

He also believes the September snowstorm pushed bears into the area because they are trying to fatten up for hibernation and went into "panic mode."

He said residents of Riverside RV Village reported bear sightings daily over the last two weeks, and he saw a bear himself.

"We have a shed, it's like a typical shed that has a door handle on it that's a lever, and the bear was smart enough to open the door," said Coombe. "Inside our shed we had bins of bird seed. He opened up all the bins and went wild."

The bear returned to the location three nights in a row, so Coombe installed a deadbolt on the door and the bear wasn't able to get in again.

Christine Poirier, site manager at Riverside RV Village, said she has seen bears in the park before but there hasn't been this much of a problem.

"Bird feeders is always an issue. But every small town, every campsite, they always have bird feeders. People are always going to want to see the birds around," said Poirier.

"Most people in the park have packed up for the season so everything is pretty much put away. But in the bears' eyes this is still a food source and we have our garbage bins around, so there is always going to be the smell of garbage."

Meanwhile, according to Mirus, there have also been a few cougar sightings in town over the last few weeks.

A cougar was spotted near Tim Hortons last week and was heading north.

There were also two cougars recently spotted crossing the course at the Sundre Golf Club and heading into Osadchuk Heights on the east side of town.

"We used cougar hounds to try and chase them and we chased them out of town to the south," he said.

Cougars are shy animals that don't like being seen often, but they are drawn to food sources. There is usually an abundance of deer in the Osadchuk Heights area at dusk.

For more information or to keep up to date on cougar and bear sightings, visit www.mountainviewbearsmart.com.