A resident in the Tagish area was fined $100 this week for causing a black bear to become a nuisance by leaving garbage on his deck unsecured.

Conservation officer David Bakica said Thursday a renter on the property was walking up to check the main house with her dog late last Friday morning when the bear was startled and bolted off the deck.

The woman ran back to her cabin and called the RCMP, saying she had been charged by a black bear and it was still hanging around.

An officer attended the scene and shot the bear but only wounded it, the conservation officer told the Star.

When he arrived at the Tagish residence in the afternoon, Bakica said, he and the RCMP officer tried to track the wounded bear but lost the blood trail after about 300 or 400 metres.

It was unfortunate the bear was wounded and not killed, but it happens in that line of work and it has happened to him, he said.

Bakica said it’s been the experience of conservation officers that wounded bears become even more wary of people, not less wary.

Leaving out attractants only invites trouble, and in this case, the circumstances were more aggravating as the home owner knew there was a bear in the area and had cautioned the renter about it, he said.

Bakica said the garbage was in a tin trash can with an unsecured lid. There was also a cooler on the deck with bacon in it.

The bear had not yet gotten to the cooler but the conservation officer said it was likely only a matter of time before it did.

While the renter described the bear as charging her, Bakica suspects it was probably more a matter of the startled bear making its escape as quickly as possible. And the only way off the deck was toward the woman, he said.

He said the dog was also barking at the bear.

It’s been a relatively good year for bears, Bakica said. He said he knows of two bears that have had to be shot in Whitehorse, though there may have been others he’s not aware of.

Bakica said nobody’s sure of why there have been fewer bear incidents this year so far.

The past couple of years have seen several bears shot or relocated, and that may be a factor, he said.

With more people staying home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Bakica said, it might be that bears are just not coming around as much.

Bears, he said, shy away from human activity.

Bakica said the renter described the black bear as younger and smaller-looking, which would make sense.

It’s generally young male black bears that tend to be a little more adventurous, and more willing to take risks compared to young female bears, he said.