COQUITLAM, B.C. — A black bear that broke into a suburban home in search of food was shot and killed Thursday, a day after a woman was attacked in the same neighborhood.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said people at an adjacent golf course saw a bear entering the house in this Vancouver suburb, although people upstairs had no idea the large animal had entered their basement.
Constable Sharen Leung said when officers arrived, the bear was in the yard eating food it had taken from a kitchen.
She said the officers shot the bear in the shoulder, but it climbed a tree.
When conservation officers arrived, they tranquilized the bear, which weighed about 396 pounds, and then RCMP officers shot and killed it.
On Wednesday, a 35-year-old woman was attacked by another bear in the same neighborhood while she was gardening in her yard. That bear was also killed. The woman was taken to a hospital with a torn scalp and numerous bite wounds. She was reported in stable condition.
Kate Thompson of the Environment Ministry said the Conservation Officer Service has received more than 2,300 calls since April about threatening wildlife in metro Vancouver, most of which would have been bears. She said conservation officers in the province kill about 700 problem bears a year.
“We get them in cycles, and we certainly have been getting more calls this year than in the previous year,” Thompson said.
A spokesman with a private conservation group said a poor berry season is drawing hungry bears into the residential areas that are increasingly encroaching on their natural habitat.
Drake Stephens of Bear Aware, a nonprofit group that educates the public about bears in British Columbia, agreed bear sightings appear to be higher than usual.
Stephens said his organization has received about 500 calls about bear sightings in Coquitlam so far this year, compared with about the same number in all of 2007.
“It’s not just a coincidence. Right now the salmonberry is finished, we’ve had a bad spring, the blackberries aren’t ripe yet,” he said.
“From what I’m hearing, all of British Columbia is seeing a peak this year in sightings and complaints.”
Stephens said bears that wander into urban areas typically return to the wilderness on their own. He stressed that attacks are extremely unusual.
Conservation officials have long complained that residents don’t take enough precautions to keep bears away, such as storing food and garbage in bear-proof containers.
Wayne Goodey, who teaches zoology at the University of British Columbia, said when berries and other sources of food run low, bears have little choice but to move into populated areas to find something to eat.
“Bears generally don’t wish to come into these areas,” Goodey said. “There’s no great benefit for them at all — they’re confronted by dangers in traffic and that sort of thing. They’re attracted by easy food.”
And the animals are more easily spooked when they find themselves in unfamiliar territory.
“If they’re up in their own zones, if something goes wrong, they know where to run,” Goodey said. “When they’re in an area that’s unfamiliar to them, they don’t know what to do next. It’s a panic situation.”
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