Black bears relocated after being captured in Redwood Meadows area

Bear activity on the rise in Redwood Meadows Brenna Rose reports following the trapping of 10 bears in 10 days in the community west of Calgary.

Alberta Fish and Wildlife officials confirm 10 bears were trapped in a period of 10 days and relocated away from the community west of Calgary.

The pre-hibernation activity of the bruins has had Redwood Meadows crews adopting additional measures to avoid unwanted interactions with humans but some residents are complicating their approach.

Brendan Cox,  a spokesperson for Alberta Fish and Wildlife’s enforcement branch, says there have been ‘quite a few calls’ about black bears in the Redwood Meadows area over the past few months.

“In many of these cases, the bears have been getting into garbage that’s been left out,” explained Cox. “That is an issue because the bears will become food-conditioned. They will depend on neighbourhoods for food if they know that they can go to those areas and get that food reward.”

“Just like a person has a favourite restaurant or a favourite grocery store, bears will quickly learn where they can get food and it’s hard to change that behaviour and then that becomes a public safety risk when they rely on human-populated areas for food.”

Mike Decore, a Redwood Meadows councillor, says the near daily bear sightings are concerning but understandable given the community's location. “It’s a wildlife corridor and we are backing onto K-Country (Kananaskis).”

Cox says there have been reports that some members of the community have been deliberately activating the traps with misguided intentions.

“In some cases there are residents who don’t like the idea of trapping and relocating the bear and their view is that it’s being done primarily so that the bears can be putdown or euthanized which is not the case here,” said Cox. “Euthanization is an option when the bear is severely food conditioned and where that behaviour won’t be able to change and the bear is likely to continue to be a public safety risk and pose that danger to people in the future. In those situations we have little choice but in the Redwood Meadows area the traps have been set primarily to assess the bears and to see if there’s a safer location where they can be taken that has natural food sources for them to eat and somewhere where they’re not going to come into conflict with humans again.”

Cox says the onus is on residents to ensure that potential attractants are properly managed to not tempt the bears.

Alberta Fish and Wildlife has received no reports from the Redwood Meadows area of any injuries to pets or humans at the hands of bears.

With files from CTV’s Brenna Rose