A bear totalled a Maple Ridge student’s car in Silver Valley recently.
Stefan Halas lives just off Silver Valley Road, near UBC’s Malcolm Knapp Research Forest, and walked out of his house on Saturday to find his Mazda 3 had suffered a bear attack.
There are telltale dirty paw marks all over the doors, and three of the sedan’s doors have been pried and bent at the top, as the bear apparently tried to open them.
“He tried every angle to get in,” said Halas, surveying the scratches and prints across this car.
A pile of glass lies by the passenger side door, as the window apparently shattered and fell to the ground when the determined bear worked over that entry.
The bear then hopped inside, and went to work opening an interior console, leaving it in pieces.
Halas plays volleyball for the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades, and the players are provided with BioSteel sports drink crystals. He believes the bruin was after that, or the remains of a lunch that lay in a plastic container on the passenger side.
“It shows their incredible sense of smell,” said Halas.
It’s a 2012 car that was already rebuilt, doesn’t hold a lot of value, and it looks like ICBC is set to declare the car a write-off rather than have it fixed. It’s disappointing for Halas, who predicts he will have a hard time replacing a vehicle which was such a good deal.
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Bear sightings are a common occurrence in his neighbourhood.
“Around here, we’re not scared of bears. They’re local inhabitants, and we have to respect them.”
The break-in was a forehead-slapping moment for Halas. He studies environmental science at UFV, and his summer job with the City of Mission’s environmental services department included making people aware of the importance of limiting bear attractants, by using bear-proof waste containers, not leaving pet food outdoors, picking up fruit that falls from trees and other measures.
Still, he was surprised that a bear would be so determined to break into a car, and Halas wondered if environmental conditions, such as the fall drought and later salmon run, has limited their food supply.
That’s the opinion of Conservation Officer Jolene Bull, who said drought can adversely affect a bear’s ability to locate natural food sources to further prepare for hibernation. There’s a direct correlation between the amount of food available in a female bear’s fat reserves, and the number of offspring that she can produce.
“In times of drought, like we had seen in the Lower Mainland, wild plants and berries may become less palatable to bears, reducing the number of natural food sources available,” Bull told Black Press Media.
She said the improper storage of garbage and compost, as well as the dense agricultural industry in the Lower Mainland, makes it easy for bears to still acquire the necessary fat reserves needed to maintain health.
“However this can lead to concerning habituated behaviour,” added Bull.
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