DISTRICT OF LAKELAND NO. 521

Wildlife / Bears

The District of Lakeland is located within the Boreal Forest. We are home to a variety of birds & animals. This insert is number 3 in a series of informational reference cards distributed in the District of Lakeland mailouts or available at the Environmental Advisory display in the District office. Save them for your future reference.

No. 3: Living with Wildlife

The key to harmonious living with wildlife is to keep wildlife in the wild & reduce
human/animal conflict. This is most effectively done by NOT attracting wildlife
into our subdivisions. Wildlife, including bears, is attracted to
odours & opportunities from barbeques, garbage, pet food, composters & bird seed.
The flip side of this insert provides some useful tips to keeping wildlife wild.

Bear Aware

Submitted by: Jacquie Moore – a member of the Environmental Advisory Committee
for the Lakeland District

Anyone who has spent much time in the Lakeland area this spring and summer is well aware that there are more bears than usual in our neighbourhoods. Besides the telltale signs of garbage cans tipped over and all sorts of garbage dragged into the trees, there have been hundreds of sightings. “It really has been a busy year for us,” says Bonnie Greene, Conservation Officer for the Ministry of the Environment, stationed out of Christopher Lake. “Calls have increased in the province this year. Since April, overall we’ve received over 600 bear-related issues reported – compare that to 2019, we had about 525 for the same reporting time period. This includes simple sightings, bears causing issues in yards, or encounters.” The rise in bear activity in the area is partly due to Mother Nature. “We had a late spring with some cooler weather so the berry crops were late,” says Bonnie, “and statistics show that when there is a late spring – slow berries – bear calls do increase.” That may be why the bears came scouting around to begin with, but it’s no longer the case. “A lot of the issues, when we do receive the calls, are related to the improper storage of garbage. Also bird feeders, and things that are left out like barbecues, pet food … if there is an attractant around, a bear will certainly find it in a short period of time.” A bear’s sense of smell is one of the best in the animal world. To put it in perspective, bloodhounds are famous for their tracking skills – sometimes called ‘a nose with a dog attached’, they have 40 times  more scent receptors than humans. But bears? They can smell seven times better than a bloodhound.
Most of the bears being seen around the Lakeland are young – 1.5 to 2 years old. They’re still learning to make their way in the world without their mothers, and the lure of food scraps in the garbage, or high-calorie pet food, or greasy barbecue grills is irresistible to them. “If they do find a food source, they will return many times to that same spot,” says Bonnie. “It’s kind of like they have a GPS; they will program an area, a location, and they will return to that many, many times to check and see if there’s food there again.” Once a bear is comfortable enough in proximity to humans to be showing up regularly and scavenging for food, they are more than just a nuisance. They are associating food with humans, which makes them habituated. And that is a dangerous situation for humans, and bears. At that point, they must be removed.

“Within the Lakeland community, bear traps have been set in pretty much all the subdivisions surrounding Emma and Christopher lakes this year,” says Bonnie. “I believe a total of six bears this year have been trapped. The likelihood of bears becoming trapped is always quite low and that’s typically due to other easily accessible attractants in the area. If there’s a garbage bin or a bird feeder right beside the trap, they might be a little bit more wary of the trap and more likely to go for a garbage source they’re comfortable with. Quite often they have been known to walk past the trap – they might stop and smell it but they’re a lot more wary of a trap. So we’ve had the traps set pretty much constantly this year and we rotate them around.” Trapped bears are sometimes relocated, says Bonnie. “We’ve got a couple locations in the crown land to the north – it’s a fair drive – between here and La Ronge, that we will take them to. They are released from the trap and then we often use a ‘hazing’ technique to further dissuade the bear from wanting to have any interaction with people again. So that might include a rubber bullet, or a scare cracker is quite a loud sound, even yelling … we just want to make sure that that interaction with the bear is fairly negative so that they might want to avoid any interaction with people again. But not all bears are successfully released,” she adds. “There’s a threat assessment made and sometimes if they’re deemed to be habituated, they are euthanized.” Bears are euthanized or ‘dispatched’ with a shotgun. “We use a one-ounce slug and it’s very fast,” says Bonnie. “We’ll use a threat assessment or a matrix, but basically if a bear keeps returning to a particular area, if it becomes accustomed to getting into garbage, if it’s been seen repeatedly night after night – that alone can be deemed a habituated bear.”
In early summer there was a large male bear, at least four years old, who kept returning to a subdivision on the east side of Emma Lake. “At one particular cabin, this bear
would lay down and rest, it kept on returning repeatedly to this deck. And it had found a garbage source right next door – it had dragged the garbage out and had returned
multiple times to this bin, then it would go and sleep on the neighbour’s deck, and just kind of hang around. So the owners there tried to haze it multiple times, but hazing techniques were ineffective. This is a very good example of what we would refer to as a ‘habituated bear’ where they just become used to being around people and scare tactics become ineffective. So the animal was euthanized with a shotgun.” In fact, it was Bonnie that had to pull the trigger. “That’s the last thing that we want to end up doing,” she says, “but you have to weigh public risk at that point. Given the size of this bear, and his reluctance to leave the area, we had to make a determination – and public safety is number one.” The Ministry of the Environment encourages everyone to be Bear Aware by removing attractants in the area – this helps reduce the number of bears that have to be euthanized or relocated each year. “So we suggest storing garbage in a secure building or a bear-resistant container,” says Bonnie. “Only put the bin out on the morning of collection. Avoid leaving pet food accessible to wildlife. Also only use bird feeders in the winter when bears are hibernating and natural bird food is limited. I always ask that people clean up because those birds often spill seed on the ground that bears will come and find early in the spring as well. We also would ask people to clean and properly store barbeques after each use.” It is not legal for people to shoot at a bear themselves unless there is an immediate and imminent threat to life or property; rather, they should use hazing techniques like bear bangers, bear spray, a car alarm and other loud noises. “It is important to remember that discharging a firearm in an urban area is completely and strictly prohibited,” says Bonnie, “and it is subject to criminal investigation by the RCMP. The preferred action would be to have all attractants removed prior to that and reduce the likelihood of a bear ever becoming habituated to an area. If a bear is found to do damage in the community or someone has an aggressive encounter with them, we urge them to call the TIPP (Turn in Poachers and Polluters) line at 1-800-667-7561.”
Improperly stored garbage not only becomes an eyesore when it gets strewn around by bears; it jeopardizes the safety of surrounding neighbours. If a property owner’s garbage is found scattered on public or private property, the District of Lakeland may issue them a notice to clean it up promptly. If they are non-compliant, the District may clean it up themselves but invoice the property owner for the work. As well, the District has the right to remove a property owner’s garbage bin if it is continuing to attract bears. Large bear-proof garbage containers are provided throughout the municipality for residents who cannot keep their garbage inside until Monday morning’s individual bin collection. “Every year black bears move around to establish new territory and look for food,” says Bonnie. “That’s normal behaviour especially for those younger ones, but it can result in safety issues for people so we must always remember to take necessary precautions.” The bottom line is that we can prevent bears from becoming a threat in our communities. “Bears are ruled by their stomachs and they’re very, very intelligent animals,” says Bonnie. “if they cannot find food, they will leave the area.”

From: Vacationland News EAC Articles