A bear searching for food after waking up from a winter slumber was hit by a car on Sunday in Maple Ridge.
Although the bruin was not fatally injured in the collision, sightings are on the rise throughout the municipality as bears head down from the mountains to seek an easy meal.
Virginia Friend is urging her neighbours to remove their bird feeders and secure their garbage after a bear broke into an outdoor freezer and feasted on frozen goodies last week.
“Twice in the past two days, my neighbour has had occasion to chase a bear from our yards,” she said.
On Monday, Mark Mellish was jogging in Whonnock when a passing motorist stopped to telling him a bear was running alongside him and gave him a lift.
It wasn’t the first time Mellish has encountered a bear while hiking or running in east Maple Ridge, but recently he’s been spotting bears more frequently.
“The bears are now way more numerous and are completely fearless,” he said.
In 2011, there were over 900 reported bear sightings in Maple Ridge. Of those, 16 were declared to be ‘problem’ bears and had to be destroyed.
B.C.’s Conservation Officer Service hopes a new Bear Aware program in Maple Ridge will reduce the conflict between bears and humans in the district.
Sgt. Steve Jacobi said calls to the conservation service are steadily increasing and are expected to peak in July, when the bears begin to fatten up for winter.
To date, the Fraser Valley zone, which stretches from Lytton to Langley and includes the Tri-Cities, has logged 58 calls about bears.
“A lot of the cities are getting better. We are getting Bear Aware co-ordinators everywhere and it’s just a changing attitude, people are accepting responsibility so we are having fewer problems,” Jacobi added.
He suggests people who live in bear country stop composting and remove attractants such as bird feeders.
The District of Maple Ridge has just hired a bear aware co-ordinator and has been working with the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society since spring to educate residents.
Alison Thompson, the co-ordinator, says the recycling society intends to step up its awareness campaign in the coming weeks.
“It’s a lot of area to cover, but we are starting to do more. We’ve been trying to make people aware of what to do to keep [the bears] away,” she added.
The COS received approximately 37,500 calls regarding human-
wildlife conflicts in 2011. Of those calls, approximately 23,800 involved human-bear conflicts. Over the past five years in B.C., an average of 600 black bears have been destroyed each year, while 93 were relocated.
• To report bear sightings or conflicts with wildlife that threaten public safety, call the Conservation Officer Service at: 1-877-952-7277.