A small black bear caused traffic disruptions for about an hour near Hillside Drive and Notre Dame Drive this afternoon, Aug. 31, 2015.
Image Credit: Chad Graham via Instagram
August 31, 2015 - 5:30 PM
KAMLOOPS - A juvenile black bear was chased out of a busy shopping area in Kamloops by conservation officers this afternoon.
Kamloops RCMP received a call around 2:45 p.m., Monday, Aug. 31, of a small black bear crossing Cariboo Place, just east of Kenna Cartwright Park and near the busy intersection of Notre Dame Drive and Hillside Drive.
“The bear was eating grass on the front lawn of Jordans (Floor Covering),” Conservation Officer Jesse Jones says of when they arrived on scene.
Conservation cordoned off a section of Hillside Drive, stopping traffic for roughly an hour, and managed to guide the bear back into the hills of Kenna Cartwright Park. The officers blocked off a section of road with their vehicles and Jones says they 'walked' the bear back up the hill.
The bear was corralled instead of tranquilized because an animal must be up in a tree in order for conservation officers to use tranquilizer, and there are not large enough trees on that section of Hillside Drive, Jones notes.
Jones is quite certain this same young bear was chased out of the Public Works yard last week on Concordia Way.
He says the difference between this bear, thought to be about two and a half, and the adult male that was euthanized in Pioneer Park last week is it doesn’t appear to be a public threat at this point.
“He just seems to want to come into town,” Jones says.
Jones says there is no indication the young bear has been into garbage. Often a bear that has gotten a taste for high fat, high caloric food will continue to return to the spot it found the food.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Dana Reynolds at dreynolds@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015