Two videos posted online Saturday show a black bear surprising people enjoying the Canada Day weekend in a busy Metro Vancouver park.
A video posted on Reddit shows a black bear on the pitch and putting green in Burnaby’s Central Park. He chases two adult geese and a goose, with the older birds honking and flapping their wings, until the younger one cannot escape and is finally caught by the bear. The animal comes within feet of the people and one can be heard shouting “Get out of the way!”
Another video posted on YouTube shows a bear in a wooded area adjacent to a paved pedestrian and bicycle path near the SkyTrain tracks. In the three-minute video, the animal slowly walks out on the trail itself, getting very close to people riding bikes and walking.
It is unclear whether both videos show the same bear.
Burnaby RCMP received “several calls” about a bear in the park and visited at least once between 11:15 a.m. and 3:15 p.m.
“Generally, callers stated that the bear was not acting aggressively toward members of the public,” said spokesman Cpl. Mike Callange in an email, adding that the British Columbia Conservation Service has been notified of the calls.
CTV News has reached out to BC’s Ministry of the Environment to see what the response has been, and this story will be updated if more information is received.
Two weeks ago, a black bear was spotted by residents of a neighborhood on the border between Vancouver and Burnaby. Police were called to the scene and shot the animal dead.
Conservationists say colder-than-average spring weather has reduced the salmon harvest this year, prompting more black bears to enter residential areas in search of food.
The latest data from the province on reported black bear encounters is from April of this year. There were 935 calls received, 133 reports investigated and 23 bears destroyed by the British Columbia Conservation Service. These are the highest numbers recorded in publicly available data that date back to 2011.
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