Two grizzly bear cubs often seen in the Lake Louise area are thought to have been killed by larger male grizzlies.
Parks Canada officials say one of the cubs of bear 138 – a female bear fitted with a GPS collar as part of a joint Parks Canada-Canadian Pacific Railway project – has not been seen in about a month and the second one has been missing since July 21.
Brianna Burley, a human-wildlife conflict specialist for Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay, said it’s suspected larger male grizzlies killed the young cubs based on reports of larger bears in the area at the same time they went missing.
“We think they were natural deaths, but we don’t actually know what happened for sure. It’s definitely unfortunate, but it’s not unheard of,” she said.
“It’s a big disappointment for all of us because we were hopeful … hopeful she would be a successful breeding female and these bears would grow to full maturity. Hopefully she’ll breed next season.”
On July 4, Parks Canada staff received a call about a distressed grizzly bear cub by the Trans-Canada Highway in an area known locally as Snowboarder Hill, just by the westbound off ramp to Lake Louise.
Burley said the cub had become separated from its mother, but staff eventually located bear 138 and herded her cub back to her.
“We were never able to locate the second cub at that time and staff spent a lot of time on the ground, hiking around and looking,” she said.
“Not too far away, there were actually quite a few larger males and it’s our assumption it likely came into contact with one of them.”
Last week, bear 138 showed up in the Snowboarder Hill area again, this time without the other cub. Prior to that, the roughly six to seven-year-old bear spent a lot of time at the Lake Louise ski resort.
Burley said resource conservation officers spoke with staff at the ski hill, who reported the cub was last seen on July 21 and at that time there was a larger, unmarked grizzly that had also shown up at the ski hill.
“We don’t know for sure that bear was a male because it was unmarked, but that bear showed up and then the next time they saw bear 138 she appeared to be quite agitated and there was no cub anymore,” she said.
Bear 138 is the female bear that denned in the Pipestone Bowl area last winter, prompting an area closure to keep skiers and snowboarders away.
“We had great compliance from everyone, the ski hill, the skiing community, and I do see that as a success because she did show up with two cubs this spring,” said Burley. “That was a good news story, it’s just unfortunate it’s ended up this way.”
