SMILE FOR THE CAMERA!
Roadside bear jams on the rise in Cape Breton Highlands National Park
Roadside bear jams on the rise in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
The sight of a mother bear and an adorable cub is proving too cute for visitors to resist in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
Unfortunately, the practice of roadside stops for up close looks at these animals in their natural habitat is causing an unsafe situation for both bears and motorists known as ‘bear jams.’
“Our bears are quite fearless of people and, in certain areas, they are used to vehicles travelling on the Cabot Trail,” said Erich Muntz, a visitor safety specialist for Parks Canada.
“When people slow down and stop and in some cases they are getting out of their vehicles to try to get those close up pictures, the potential for problems is increasing.”
A bear jam, just like a traffic jam, can see many cars stacked all in a row at various points in the national park. When they happen, Muntz said, the potential for vehicle and bear strikes can increase.
“Stopping and pulling over on the side of the road just encourages others to do the same thing and before
you know it you could end up having 20-30 cars where people don’t have good visibility.”
A bear jam is not a new phenomenon in Cape Breton, but there do seem to be more of them in recent weeks, which has prompted Parks Canada to advise visitors of best practices.
Instead of stopping to see a bear, Muntz said people should slow down, put on their car’s four-way flashers, observe the animal and then drive on through.
“People getting out of their vehicles is not a good thing,” he said. “Bears, they sometimes have young, and one particular case we have a sow bear here with two young and they can be somewhat defensive of their young, so even though you may not see a young bear with a female, it could be there and you might trigger a charge or defensive action from a bear.”
Feeding bears or any wildlife should also be avoided and, in fact, is forbidden in the national park.
“We have campgrounds and day use areas all around the Cabot Trail, so if bears are fed around the highway, they may actual come into some of our campgrounds to try to find that food they have associated with people. That is never a good thing.”
More information on bear safety can be found on the Parks Canada website.