A female black bear that was tagged last summer has been praised by Fish and Wildlife Officer, John Clarke for “good behavior.”
Last summer, officers from Fish and Wildlife noticed a female black bear that was living in a wooden area near Frank Industrial Park, behind Frank.
“She was a really good bear,” said John Clarke. “We wanted to track her so that we could teach her to be a good bear.”
He explained that bear bangers and other prevention equipment is a good method to keep bears away, the best prevention is knowledge and to work with the public.
“We monitored her and she was a good bear for the majority of the fall last year,” Clarke said. “When the winter came, I wanted to track her and locate her den.”
Clarke said that once he found her den, he found some squealing. “I thought she must’ve had a cub,” he said. Little did he know, she had three.
“We were very surprised to find that she had three cubs,” said Clarke.
The four bears are currently in the Hillcrest area.
He said that she has shown good bear behavior so far and he wants it to continue, especially now that she is a mother of three.
“We want her to be a success story,” said Clarke. “The last thing we want is for her to become a problem bear.”
He said that it is important that she learns her boundaries and stays in the area, rather than becoming a problem and forced to relocate.
“We track bears to protect them and to protect the community,” said Clarke. “We don’t want to hurt or kill the bears and that’s why we’ve been working so hard with BearSmart.”
He said that the bears that Fish and Wildlife have to put down are usually bears who come back to a danger area after being relocated and become a threat.
“The last thing we want to do is kill a bear,” he said. “We want to work with the community to protect the bears in the area.”
