Bears can’t seem to resist a free meal.
Especially the kind people leave out for them in their garbage containers.
Those bruins lurking in the forests that surround many Prince George neighbourhoods have a keen sense of smell and they will come around at night or early in the morning when people drag their garbage to the curb to be collected by the city trucks.
Unfortunately, that creates bad habits and bears get used to knocking over those plastic bins to get at the goodies inside. That brings them into the neighbourhood, where they go after bird feeders and fruit trees, rather than sticking to the woods to feed on their natural diet of berries and cowslips, and that increases the likelihood of a close encounter with humans or their pets.
In some cases, bears get too habituated to city neighbourhoods and have to be euthanized by B.C. Conservation officers. That was the fate that led to the deaths of 36 bears in Prince George in 2021, among 3,779 bears shot by conservation officers in a seven-year period from 2015-2021. In P.G., 231 bears were killed that way during that seven-year period. Those numbers put Prince George as the municipality in B.C. with the highest bear euthanizations.
The Northern Bear Awareness Society, a not-for-profit group that promotes public education to reduce human-bear conflicts, is urging people to do what they can to reduce bear attractants on their property.
For people who can’t store their garbage in a shed or a garage, the society advocates using ratchet-style tiedown straps that can be attached to garbage containers. That way, even if a bear knocks over the container, it won’t be able to get at the contents.
Northern Bear Awareness also suggests people take down birdseed feeders from March to November and to pick fruit off the trees as soon as it is ripe to keep bears from wandering into the city looking for food. Fruit has an odour that bears can easily sense and the society is asking people to pick up fruit that falls to the ground and take advantage of the city’s fruit exchange programs.
More tips are available on the website, www.NorthernBearAwareness.com.
