Marauding grizzly bear put down in Kluane Park
A grizzly bear has been euthanized
A grizzly bear has been euthanized after wreaking havoc at a research camp in Kluane National Park and Reserve.
Last Sunday, the young male grizzly entered the camp 30 kilometres in the ice fields up the Kaskawulsh Glacier.
It destroyed equipment and consumed human food. No one was in the camp at the time.
Parks Canada says it made the difficult decision to euthanize the bear out of concern for visitors’ safety.
Craig McKinnon is the resource conservation manager for Kluane National Park and Reserve.
He told the Star Thursday there is a campground located 30 kilometres away, and there was concern that the bear could be headed there and repeat the same behaviour.
He noted that the bear was rewarded with finding food after getting into tents at the research camp.
McKinnon said this is a travel corridor that bears go through all the time. There aren’t a lot of opportunities for foraging that far into the ice fields.
“Bears are curious, and they investigate anything they find,” he said.
In a statement, Parks Canada noted that euthanization is a last resort used only when visitor safety is at risk.
It adds that bears that have been conditioned to human food lose their natural wariness of humans and can associate human structures with food, posing a serious danger to the public.
McKinnon said this incident was not indicative of normal bear activity and not in a typical area where there are human-bear conflicts.
“In my 26-year career here, I’ve known bears to be far into the ice fields, but there’s never been any conflict between human and bears that far into the glacier,” he said.
Parks Canada will be working with a professional wildlife veterinarian to do a necropsy to learn more about the bear and find evidence linking it to the incident at the research camp.
As a precautionary measure, Parks Canada is continuing to enforce an area closure of the Slims River area.
The Sheep Creek and Bouillon Creek trails was expected to be open by Thursday, but overnight trips will continue to be prohibited until further notice.
Comments (8)
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Vivien Lougheed on Mar 9, 2018 at 11:16 am
Why was food left anywhere in that park without being in food canisters? The fine I believe is around $2000 for this offence and I think it should be enforced.
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Mr Facts on Jul 6, 2017 at 3:39 pm
Salar
No the real animals are humans. Look at how many humans are on this planet. We could use a purge. I would rather see a bear then most people any day.
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Lea Bayliss on Jul 4, 2017 at 8:25 pm
"He noted that the bear was rewarded with finding food after getting into tents at the research camp."....
No further comments needed.
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Salar on Jul 1, 2017 at 3:30 pm
Geez folks, it's not like there is a shortage of bears in the Yukon. Cow moose would celebrate the article...if they could read that is....but that's crazy because they're animals.
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Josey Wales on Jul 1, 2017 at 7:46 am
We should put parks in charge of community safety. Lots of marauding
Humans...some feral, creating absolute carnage wherever they roam.
Too damn bad that we do not carry over this attitude in regards to public safety with our wild critters, over to the clear and present danger of composted communities the Trevor the human types create.
Oh yes....happy birthday Canada.
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m on Jun 30, 2017 at 10:14 pm
And by the way, this bear was not marauding; it was looking for a meal, that's what they do, just like the rest of us.
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Marsha Flumerfelt on Jun 30, 2017 at 10:10 pm
I am somewhat confused just where this occurred. One can only assume they meant 30 kms up from the Kaskawulsh terminus?
Still while this seems a bit unusual, there were over the years reports of bears seen traversing the glaciers, as well as other species.
Again using the assuming word, these were not wild life/ bear biologists?
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June Jackson on Jun 30, 2017 at 8:51 pm
A difficult decision huh? There have been a lot of "difficult decisions" haven't there?