Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds

By James Peters

Bears!

Bears leave McArthur Island, move on to Schubert Drive

Aug 20, 2019 | 2:47 AM

KAMLOOPS — Perched upon a tree, a sow black bear and her two babies had a birds-eye view this morning of the passersby and city officials crowded around them.

Mitchel Hughes watched the bears for hours today, cautioning people to avoid the trail — especially if there were young kids or pets in tow.

“”I kind of just parked my car and I called the conservation officers and I’ve been detouring people with their dogs and make sure they clear the area so that no one gets hurt,” Hughes says.

The trio was in McArthur Island Park yesterday (Aug. 19), causing the City of Kamloops to temporarily close it. The three were first spotted on Schubert Drive this morning.

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“Ideally when she feels safe and there’s not so many people around she’ll continue along and head out of town, that’s the hope,” says BC Conservation Officer Rob Armstrong. “Of course if people don’t give her that berth it adds a tremendous amount of stress to her and the cubs.”

Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds

Armstrong says too many people around could lead to the sow becoming protective of her cubs.

“If we put the bears in a position where she feels she needs to defends the cubs then that puts them all at risk,” he adds.

Armstrong says the hope is for the bears to make their way out of the city, but so long as attractants like open garbage cans, bird feeders and fruit trees are here to tempt the bears, they won’t be going far.

Vanessa Isnardy, provincial coordinator with WildSafe BC, says the most important thing residents can do is manage those attractants.

“We don’t want them to stay around the community, it’s dangerous for them, they could get hit by a car, get into all sorts of trouble, we’re hoping that they’re not going to find anything and that they’re just going to move on and leave the area.”

Ryley Scott is the coordinator with WildSafe BC in Kamloops. He was in the area today to educate people on the presence of bears, and what they can do to manage things like garbage so that the bears could survive and move away.

“The bears aren’t aggressive in nature really, they just want to be left alone so if we give them their space and respect their distance, they’ll move on faster the best thing we can do is just to leave them alone,” Scott says.

McArthur Island Park is back open to the public.