‘HIGHLY DANGEROUS’ BEHAVIOUR
Parents let kids feed backyard bruins
B.C. conservation officers are investigating after a video posted on Instagram showed a couple of North Shore kids feeding black bears.
Christine Miller, an education co-ordinator with the North Shore Black Bear Society, said she was shocked to see the images of children feeding a young black bear from their house.
In the video, which has now been removed from Instagram, two West Vancouver girls can be seen feeding the bear cub by an open patio door.
Miller said it looks like the family began feeding the mother bear when it was pregnant and then the mother returned with the cub.
She believes the kids have no idea that they are putting people at risk, as well as the lives of the bears, which could be shot dead by conservation officers if they threaten the lives of people.
“It is very shocking to think that in 2018 someone would not know that this is inappropriate for the safety of people and the safety of bears,” she said.
Miller said it’s a problem of food conditioning, in which the animals will remember where they have been fed and will keep coming back.
“If a bear learns that it can get food from a window or a slidingglass door, then it will learn that it is a feeding station and go to other sliding glass doors. And if they are open they will wander into the house,” she said.
In another video posted on the same Instagram account, a man can be seen giving a roll of crackers to an adult bear.
Miller said people can be fined more than $300 for this “highly dangerous” behaviour. Conservation officers have long suspected there are residents who feed bears, but there has not been a lot of evidence, she added.
“This is the worst scenario that we’ve become aware of,” she said. “We really need people to be wary of this.”
B.C. Conservation Officer Lonnie Schoenthal confirmed Thursday that they had received a report of the girls feeding a bear cub and the office is investigating.
“The biggest concern here for (the conservation office) is that in feeding dangerous wildlife you are putting the animal at harm and habituating it and food conditioning it,” he said.
He said feeding bears is an offence under the Wildlife Act.
“It’s not only unsafe to the public. It may put the animal in a position where it has to be destroyed if it becomes a public safety threat.”