Conservation staff trains for attacks
Officers prepare for worst- case scenarios in national parks
Two campers are in their tent in a campground when it gets knocked over. They go out to check what happened and they hear screaming and see another camper running toward them with an injured arm.
He’s been attacked by an animal and his partner is missing.
Conservation officers respond to the scene, knowing they put up a warning in the campground a couple of days earlier after a black bear got into some food.
“Help! Please come help us,” yells one of the campers. “He’s very hurt. Please, please ...”
Officers determine the injured man’s girlfriend has been killed by a black bear, which is still in the area and has to be shot when it returns while they are investigating.
It’s one of three training scenarios given to conservation officers from Alberta Parks and the nearby national parks — Banff, Yoho and Kootenay — on Wednesday during a joint wildlife attack response training session at the Canmore Nordic Centre.
The two others included a nonfatal attack on two mountain bikers who happened upon a grizzly bear eating an elk carcass and a cougar injuring a young girl who was out hiking with her family.
“We’re trying to train for the worst case scenario so we’re prepared in the event that does happen,” said Arian Spiteri, a district conservation officer with Alberta Parks.
Steve Michel, human/ wildlife conflict specialist with Banff National Park, said it’s rare to have attacks on people.
“We are all aware of several that have happened in either the national parks or Alberta protected areas or on Crown land,” he said. “Our philosophy is that when something is quite rare, it doesn’t happen often, you have to train for it a lot more.”
Michel said they average about one contact incident on a person each year in the national parks, but haven’t had one since 2008 when a black bear was killed after it was involved in a predatory attack on a woman jogging near Lake Louise.
Spiteri said there was a fatal grizzly bear attack in Kananaskis Country just last fall.
Calgarian Rick Cross was walking alone on the Picklejar Creek trail when he was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear while hunting sheep. It was determined it was a defensive attack by the female bear, protecting both her cub and a recent kill.