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The information below is a compilation of bear information provided by government agencies and unconfirmed sightings reported by the public over the last week. It is not intended to be used as a real-time, complete record of where bears are in the valley.
BEAR ACTIVITY UPDATE (Oct.3-10, 2024)
(Banff National Park East Gate to Bow Valley Provincial Park)
Bears continue to be seen regularly throughout the Bow Valley and Kananaskis Country and with the upcoming long weekend and nice weather forecast, the trails and day use areas will likely be very busy with visitors. It’s important that everyone remains vigilant and mentally prepared for possible encounters with bears and other wildlife, all of which are still active in the Bow Valley and Kananaskis Country! There have also been many sightings of bears in the backcountry so if you’re heading out - be prepared with bear spray, be respectful and give them space to move and feed undisturbed.
Bears need a healthy fat layer before they go into their deep sleep; it helps them to stay warm and provides calories to survive the winter. With that in mind, bears will continue to actively search for food in the coming weeks to pack on those extra few pounds before heading into their dens for the winter. As such, it is important that everyone remains vigilant and mentally prepared for possible encounters, and that all wildlife attractants are either removed or properly secured at home and on the trails.
Maybe Kananaskis Country should start its own Fat Bear Week! Here is a great shot of a local fat bear from last fall. Photo courtesy of Alberta Forestry & Parks.
Bear activity picked up this past week in Canmore as a black bear spent countless hours feeding in fruit trees (in particular Mountain Ash trees) in residential yards in the Lady MacDonald/Ridge Road/Grotto Village areas. This bear is believed to be the same bear that was hanging out near Elizabeth Rummel School a few weeks ago. Another black bear, possibly the same bear, was seen in downtown Canmore on Monday night eating rose hips and other fruit in trees. Enforcement action has been taken and violation tickets continue to be served to those homeowners who are not removing the fruit from their trees and are attracting bears into town and getting them into trouble. If a bear is found feeding in your fruit tree, the first offence would be $1,000!
Many hands make light work, so if you have family or friends visiting this Thanksgiving weekend, have them help pick the fruit from your yard!
Remove your fruit trees or their fruit, or you may face steep fines and be responsible for killing a bear! To find out more about the fines associated with allowing wildlife attractants such as fruit to accumulate on trees and on the ground, view and download the Community Standards Bylaw here.
Elk continue to be seen and heard bugling along trails and in wide open fields such as school yards and playing fields around town, which means you may have to choose an alternate route while out for a walk/run/ride. Male elk are particularly protective of any female elk they are with, and there continue to be reports of large rutting bull elk showing aggression towards people getting too close trying to take pictures or trying to sneak past them on the trails. The best way to keep them at ease is to give plenty of space to ALL ELK by staying at least 30m away - which is three school bus lengths - never try to sneak past them and never get between a male elk and the female elk.
Remember: keep pets on a leash, carry bear spray in an easily accessible location, and if an elk charges, position a large object (e.g. car, large tree) between you and the elk or consider using your bear spray. Never approach elk up close as they are wild animals that can react unpredictably! Click here for more information about how to handle elk encounters.
Never try to sneak past elk as they are wild animals that need their space and can react unpredictably! Photo taken today on October 10, 2024!
Bow hunting season is now open in the Bow Valley so please be aware of your surroundings and stay clear of dead animals. Hunters need to be cautious as, due to the nature of their activity, they are intentionally being quiet on the landscape. They should always be bear aware and carry bear spray with them while out hunting!
VIEW CURRENT WARNINGS AND CLOSURES
You can also submit your report using the Report-A-Poacher Online form or contact your local district Fish and Wildlife office.
SOME THINGS TO ‘BEAR’ IN MIND
Bears are so focused on food this time of year that they are more likely to take risks, like coming into town and backyards to feed in fruit trees. Letting a bear access these higher calorie items such as crabapples and mountain ash won't do it any favours. Once they try these food sources they can learn that towns provide easy meals, meaning they're more likely to stick around and come back. This can become a public safety issue as bears can get protective of food sources, leading to conflicts between bears and humans, with bears normally paying the price by getting relocated or killed.
Ever wonder how many calories are in the ‘unnatural’ foods provided by people vs. the ‘natural’ foods provided by nature? It’s no wonder bears are willing to take the risk to access these higher calorie ‘unnatural’ foods.
Click on this image from the Living With Bears Handbook to find out more about calorie counts (and how they're broken down). Copyright 2015 Linda Masterson.
Ever wonder what bears do in October? Learn all about it from our friends at BearWise south of the border. “October at a Glance: Hyperphagia is in full-swing. Bears may be awake and searching for food up to 20 hours a day. Many bears also look for den sites. Some pregnant females may den up by the end of the month. As days shorten, vehicle collisions rise.” Click here to read the full article about What bears do in October.
SLOW DOWN: Bears and other wildlife are often seen feeding and travelling on or near the road so motorists need to slow down when passing wildlife roadside, obey speed limits and be extra alert (especially at dawn and dusk) as the days are getting shorter and the number of darkness hours are increasing. Remember to obey speed limits and slow down when passing wildlife, but don’t stop, and always stay in your vehicle! Give bears at least 100m of space at all times!
The Friends of Kananaskis Country have some great Tips for Roadside Wildlife Viewing.
Connected: A Parks Canada Podcast is available on major podcast streaming platforms. This new educational tool that Parks Canada recently published, has one season with six episodes. Each episode is about a different species at risk in Banff, Yoho and Kootenay, and features an interview with the specialists who work in the parks. The episode list includes the grizzly bear, westslope cutthroat trout, black swift, wolverine, whitebark pine, and little brown bat. CLICK HERE for more information and list of episodes.
This week we are featuring the first episode about Grizzly Bears - Description: Join us in the field with Wildlife Ecologist David Laskin. He talks about the challenges of studying and protecting grizzly bears, and answers questions like, “How do you put a collar on a bear?” Find out what Parks Canada is doing to help these iconic symbols of the wilderness.
Collared female grizzly bear and cubs. Photo credit Alex Taylor.
WILDLIFE AMBASSADOR WORDS OF WISDOM
Living and recreating safely in bear country means understanding many things, from signs that bears are around, to what to do in a bear encounter. As we wander in the wilderness (or even in town sites) we are travelling in a bear’s home: their living areas, dining areas, and even their bathrooms. Recognizing the food sources that bears are currently eating can help raise your awareness of the possibility that bears are around where you are at any given moment. Every month we’re going to look at what bears are eating right now, and for the next few weeks, and in this edition of What are the Bears eating today? by Derek Ryder, Volunteer Wildlife Ambassador & IGA Interpretive Guide, it is Ground Squirrels.
It’s the time of year when the diets of Grizzly and Black bears have diverged. Grizzlies started moving out of the valleys and into the alpine weeks ago. Black bears find slightly higher elevations but den much lower than their grizzly counterparts. By this time next month, half of the grizzlies and virtually all of the black bears will be in dens (and the ski season will have started, even though this week doesn’t feel like it).
Black bears’ thoughts in October turn to grasses and insects. In October 2020, I was doing a Wildlife Ambassador rove in Riverside Park in downtown Canmore and found a great big pile of bear scat. It was nothing but the lush green grass growing in the park. Bears are smart and always are eating the best thing available. One of our wildlife coexistence challenges in the Canmore area is that we plant and lovingly tend to good ‘ole grass in our parks, which is demonstrably a wildlife attractant. Riverside had bear poop, deer poop and elk poop in it – and a herd of elk napping in the trees nearby on a busy Sunday. And we all know how many bears have been removed from town because of fruit trees and other attractants. Grizzlies, on the other hand, take advantage of their high alpine denning areas to target the perfect bedtime snack: ground squirrels and marmots. Click here to read Derek’s full article about Ground Squirrels!
Click on this image of Ground Squirrels to read the full article!
WEEKLY WILDLIFE AMBASSADOR WHEREABOUTS
In case you have not seen them yet, our amazing Volunteer Wildlife Ambassadors have been heading out onto trails and trailheads. You can find them talking to people about responsible trail use and staying safe while recreating in bear country. Last weekend they were at Arethusa Cirque and Elbow Lake in PLPP and the Canmore Engine Bridge. Note: the locations they are stationed at may change at the last minute.
Oct.12 - Upper Kananaskis Lake in PLPP.
Keep an eye out for the Wildlife Ambassadors next time you are out on the trails in the Bow Valley and K-Country. If you see them on the trails, be sure to say ‘hi’ and have a chat with them!
Some of our Ambassadors out at Arethusa last weekend!
As you can see the parking area was very busy!
WILDLIFE IN THE NEWS
Fruit removal expands in Alberta to limit wildlife conflict.
Black bear encounter, northern lights make for quintessential Canadian experience.
It's a bear-eat-bear world; Banff trail closed to let bear eat ahead of denning.
Juneau, Alaska hunter survives surprise encounter with mother grizzly bear.
Black bear with three cubs enters Lake City, Colorado home and attacks 74-year-old man.
Mama grizzly bear chases hunter up a tree in Montana, later killed by wildlife officials.
Woman in Washington State calls 911 after being hounded by up to 100 raccoons.
Farmers near Spencerville, Ont. say a suspected cougar is attacking their sheep.
Warming climate threatens Hudson Bay's polar bears.
Parks Canada closes Banff National Park backcountry area to facilitate Indigenous bison hunt.
Tragic death of a bear shakes small California mountain town to its core.
West Kelowna neighbourhood divided over recent bear deaths.
Black bear found dead on Tennessee highway next to pancakes.
Black bear encounters up this year, high temps the likely cause in Utah.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT?
Bears continue to be drawn into town by fruit such such as Mountain Ash. We need your help to ensure the safety of both people and bears!
Many hands make light work, so if you have family or friends visiting this Thanksgiving weekend, have them help pick the fruit from your yard. Remove all fruit from branches and dispose of it responsibly. Picked fruit can be put in the residential food waste bins around town. Leaves, branches and clippings can be disposed of separately in the appropriate bins at the Boulder Crescent Recycling Depot.
WildSmart has pruning shears, extendable pole saw pruners and fruit pickers that can be borrowed (free of charge) to assist Bow Valley residents in removing that hard to reach fruit. Please send an email to resource@biosphereinstitute.org to make arrangements to borrow the fruit removal equipment.
Apply for the Town of Canmore’s Fruit Tree Removal Incentive: Picking fruit every year is a lot of work so the recommended long-term solution is to remove your fruit tree! There is still plenty of money remaining in the budget this year for the Town of Canmore’s Fruit Tree Removal Incentive Program so we urge you to consider removing your fruit tree now while the funds are available! Get up to $500 per property for removing fruit trees. Condos or commercial properties with 5+ trees may be eligible for up to $1,000 for 2024 only. Click here for more information and details about how to participate.
Halloween is around the corner and with that, pumpkins are starting to make an appearance. Please be proactive and remember to keep pumpkins inside of windows and NOT outside on your doorstep. Pumpkins are a wildlife attractant to all sorts of animals, not just bears. You might think that your pumpkin is safe on a balcony, far off the ground, but bears are very good climbers. Check out this video of an ingenious bear climbing up onto a balcony.
AND NOW SOME PAWS-ITIVE NEWS
The results are in and the crowned champion of Fat Bear Week 2024 is Grazer, the first working mom to ever be crowned champion! #128 Grazer topped #32 Chunk to become the winner. This is Grazer’s second consecutive win, though she has been a familiar presence for years on the Brooks River at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. According to Fat Bear Week’s website, “Grazer is a highly defensive mother bear who is raising her third litter. Her fearless nature is respected by other bears who often choose to give her space instead of risking a confrontation. This elevates Grazer’s rank in the bear hierarchy above almost all bears except for the largest males. Grazer’s skills and toughness make her one of Brooks River’s most formidable, successful, and adaptable bears.” Congratulations Grazer!
Click on this image to meet and learn more about #128 Grazer!
UPCOMING EVENTS
October 15 - Bike All Winter Program
Community Cruisers’ Bike All Winter Program is open for applications until October 15. Participants receive assistance to winterize their bike, including free or subsidized winter bicycle tires, lights and fenders, training on winter bike riding, as well as a ‘Bike All Winter Mentor’ in exchange for a commitment to cycle throughout the winter. Learn more and apply now by clicking here!
October 20 - Banff Share and Repair Fair
The Town of Banff and Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley invite you to the Banff Share and Repair Fair on Sunday, Oct.20, 2024 from 10am-2pm at the Fenlands Recreation Centre Concourse in Banff.
SAVE YOUR SPOT TODAY! Free to attend and register. Save your spot by REGISTERING HERE. The first 50 people to register will be entered to win a prize of $100 to the Last Temptation! Must be at the event to win.
If you would like to volunteer, please sign up here.
November 15 - Biosphere Institute’s 3rd Annual Community Square Dance Fundraiser!
The Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley invites you to join us for some boot stompin' fun at our third annual Square Dance Community Fundraiser! The most fun you can have with your boots on...
We will provide you with an incredible live band, light snacks and so much laughing your belly will hurt the next day! Dress to impress in your best Western wear! Prizes for "Best dressed" and "Most enthusiastic" dancer.
Friday, November 15, 2024
Doors open: 6:30 PM at the Cornerstone Theatre in Canmore
Dance begins at 7:30 PM and runs until late.
General Admission: $45+processing fees
Silent auction, draw prizes and more! All profits go to supporting the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley. All are welcome! We welcome young and old cowboys, cowgirls, and cowpals! No dance experience or partner necessary. Please let us know if you have any accessibility concerns that we should know about. If affordability is a barrier to this event, please reach out to tanya@biosphereinstitute.org. Since we would love to make this an inclusive event for all, we have a limited number of lower priced tickets available. The past two years have sold out, so get your tickets soon. Yeehaw, see you there!
Curious what the event is like? Check out this awesome video from last year by Greg Monforton!
Please remember BEARS CAN BE ENCOUNTERED ANYWHERE, ANYTIME!
Report any sightings of a bear, cougar, wolf or any aggressive wildlife in Kananaskis Country or the Bow Valley to Kananaskis Dispatch at 403.591.7755