Black bears are roaming the outskirts of the Banff townsite, campgrounds and local picnic areas, prompting Parks Canada to urge residents and visitors to put away any attractants.
Bears have been seen mostly on the periphery of town such as Middle Springs, Whiskey Creek, Tunnel Mountain and Fenlands, as well as at local campgrounds and picnic areas at Two Jack Lake and Lake Minnewanka.
“There’s been no real conflicts per se, but there’s been a presence of bears in high human use areas feeding on natural food sources,” said Steve Michel, human-wildlife conflict specialist for Banff National Park.
“But we are having a few problems with bears sniffing around and interested in picnic sites that were left not as tidy as they should have been. But we’re not aware that they received any food rewards.”
Michel said he wants to remind people that berry season is winding down and natural food availability is becoming less than it was earlier in the year, and because of that, bears will actively seek out any food source they can in the coming months to fatten up in preparation for the winter’s hibernation.
“Obviously, that could lead them into places in the townsite where they might come into contact with improperly stored garbage, bird feeders, greasy barbecues, or crab apple trees,” he said.
An estimated 35 crab apple trees and other fruit trees are scattered throughout town, including at the park superintendent’s residence, at Cascade Gardens, The Banff Centre and various residential neighbourhoods.
In the spring of this year, an opportunistic black bear was found snacking on fruit tree in a residential yard on Marmot Crescent that backs onto a wildlife corridor.
“It is that time of year again that people need to know to get all fruit off the trees,” Michel said.
Michel said the bears have not ventured into town, but have been travelleing through and using wildlife corridors for the most part.
“We want to make sure all known attractants that cause animals to be held in the townsite with a feeding opportunity are away, otherwise they start to return for that,” he said.
Meanwhile, hikers had a close encounter with black bears in two separate incidents last week, one in the Spray Valley and one by Stewart Canyon near Lake Minnewanka.
“They were not what I would deem to be serious, but the visitors were concerned in both cases,” Michel said.
“It sounds like a case of bears that were wanting to go from point A to B and the people felt they were being followed.”
In other news, a black bear was reported hit by a train on Wednesday (Aug. 29) near Fenlands just west of the Banff townsite – but the fate of the bear is not known for sure.
“We know the animal survived the initial impact, but we weren’t able to locate a carcass or injured bear, so we don’t know what the outcome was,” Michel said.
So far this year, 14 black bears have been killed in Banff, Yoho and Kootenay national parks, including 10 on roads and four more on the railway tracks. The long-term yearly human-caused mortality average is 7.8 deaths.
