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The information below is based upon 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 SUMMARY

(Banff National Park East Gate to Bow Valley Provincial Park) For the period: July 30 to August 6, 2021

Both types of bears, including several family groups of bears, continue to be been seen on both sides of the Bow Valley and throughout K-Country feeding on buffaloberries, which has also resulted in more warnings and closures being put in place. It is also a good idea to “Know before you go” by finding out where the bear warnings are and planning accordingly; avoiding these areas can also reduce your risks of encounters.

There is a bear warning for the area near the engine bridge in Canmore due to a black bear sow with cubs in the area.

Be prepared and on the lookout for bears feeding on buffaloberries while you recreate, as many berry bushes are found along popular trails. All trail users should have a heightened awareness, keep dogs on a leash and make lots of noise to alert bears of their presence. More useful advice can be found in this article from last year.

VIEW CURRENT WARNINGS AND CLOSURES

SOME THINGS TO ‘BEAR’ IN MIND

During this busy summer season, there have been many bear and wildlife jams, which puts unnecessary stress on the animals and causes public safety concerns. Motorists should obey posted speed limits and slow down near roadside wildlife - but don’t stop and cause (or be part of) a bear jam on the highway. Keep moving in order to give bears the space they need to feed!

Trail users need to mentally prepare themselves to handle bear encounters (think about what you will do before you head out on the trail) and expect to run into a bear while out on the trails! Watch this short video about how to handle (and avoid) bear encounters to help you with this mental preparation. Remember to carry bear spray to use in case of accidental close encounters. Know where your bear spray is on your person (in an easily accessible location) and be comfortable getting it out!

A positive, proactive step that you can take is to remove fruit (such as crabapple, mountain ash and chokecherry) from your trees NOW before you have a bear in your tree. Leaving fruit in your trees can attract bears into residential areas, putting bears and people at risk. WildSmart has pruning shears and extendable fruit pickers that can be borrowed (free of charge) to assist Bow Valley residents in removing fruit and berry bushes from their property. Please send an email to info@wildsmart.ca to make arrangements to borrow the fruit picking equipment.

If you prefer to remove your fruit tree, the Town of Canmore is running a Voluntary Fruit Tree Removal Incentive Program. More information and details about how to participate can be found on their website.

For more information on areas in the Bow Valley frequented by bears at this time of year visit our human-bear conflict summary map.

BEARS IN THE NEWS

A 26-year-old woman was killed by a black bear in northern Alberta
The bear that fatally mauled the woman above was euthanized by Alberta Fish and Wildlife.
Woman charged for not giving bears enough space while filming a close encounter with a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park.
Watch a bear trying to ride a paddleboard down in K-Country.

Food for Thought?

What are the Bears eating today? by Derek Ryder, Wildlife Ambassador and IGA Interpretive Guide

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 bears’ homes: their living areas, dining areas, and even their bathrooms. Recognizing food that bears are currently eating can help raise your awareness of the possibility that bears are around where you are at any given moment. In this series of articles, each month, we’re going to look at what bears are eating right now, and for the next few weeks.

Welcome to berry season! When it comes to berries, of course we endlessly talk of shepherdia, and that’s an absolutely prime source of berries for bears. There are places in K-Country where there are a LOT fewer shepherdia bushes, or where the berry crop just isn’t as good. If you’re a bear living in that space, what berries do you eat? Well, one berry you DON’T eat are strawberries. Why? We know strawberries are delicious and sweet. Why do bears NOT eat strawberries?

The simple answer is “density”. Anyone who has walked through an alpine meadow can find lots of strawberry plants, but there just aren’t a lot of berries. Bears are eating 200,000 shepherdia berries a day to get the calories they need at this time of year. Anyone who has gone wild strawberry hunting knows Mr. Bear would basically have to lick square miles of ground to find that many strawberries – and he still probably wouldn’t get that many. So while strawberries are tasty, bears just don’t bother, since they’re too much work for too little reward.

But raspberries… ooh, wild raspberries (rubus idaeus)… now THERE’S a berry bears love. Members of the rose family, and very prickly, but the bears don’t care about the prickles; their lips and tongues are tougher than ours. Raspberries tend to grow in patches of a dozen or more plants. With raspberries, year-old, yellower-leafed canes are FAR more productive for berries than new green canes. Each year-old, berry-bearing plant can have a hundred or more berries. This means that a patch could contain 5-10 kg of berries if you got them all. More nutritionally dense than shepherdia, bears don’t have to eat as many raspberries, but their needs are still on the order of 30-40 kg of raspberries a day (and the more the merrier). Find 8-10 patches a day, and bears are happy – and 10 patches are easy to find in the right areas.

Research done in the mid 1980’s in the Sheep River area by loyal WildSmart weekly bear report reader Anne Weerstra (by collecting scat and analyzing it… fun job) showed that wild raspberries form a significant part of the diet for the black bears in the area she studied. Raspberries in 1984 at this time of year were in almost 40% of bear scat; shepherdia was only in about 30%. In 1985, raspberries had ballooned to almost 55%; shepherdia was below 10%; the data suggests that wasn’t a great shepherdia year. You can read her paper on it here. I want to thank Anne for passing on suggestions for these articles, too.

Wild raspberries like disturbed ground and gravelly soils, so (just like dandelions) often grow along roadsides and where people are. Locally, the raspberry patches near my house are dined on annually, as are the ones I know of in the Heart Creek area. Raspberry patches also surround Quarry Lake (where the raspberry pictures accompanying this article were taken) and on the power line, which often creates conflict issues when the bears move in to get them (and they do most years). But you will also find wild raspberries in stony meadows at higher elevations, and the grizzlies are good at finding them, too.

They verge on invasive; one volunteer raspberry plant got into my garden a few years back, and despite my best efforts to control it, I am now fighting 5 plants. They propagate not only by seed but by suckering, putting underground root shoots out meters from the original plants. On the bright side, I’m good at collecting the berries I do get (they’re delicious), and most berries don’t show up until Year 2, giving me lots of time to control the attractant.

While people have been eating (and cultivating) raspberries for a long time, the leaves are also of interest. If the leaves are fresh and green, they can be made into a tea, but avoid using wilted leaves as they can be toxic. Some sources purport that raspberry leaves contain compounds (including “fragarine,” identified and named in 1941) that have stimulating effects on the muscles of the uterus, so raspberry teas have been commonly used for centuries before, during or after childbirth. Its real efficacy remains unproven, however.

AND NOW SOME PAWS-ITIVE NEWS

We are very proud and pleased to report that WildSmart’s very own Andrew Cotterell was successful in reaching the end of the 1130 km Great Divide Trail ahead of schedule and in a record time of 20 days and 7 hours! There is still time to help Andrew reach his goal of raising $10,000 for Crossing the Divide Experience to help get at-risk, disadvantaged youth and other groups outdoors to experience the wilderness by clicking here. They have almost no overhead and funds go directly to getting youth into the wilderness.

“I’m truly grateful for all the time I got to spend outdoors in nature. I only saw two bears the whole trip, both from a safe distance and moving away from me. I think this was due to being able to recognize when there was likely food for bears around and being very noisy! I’m no better at yodeling or singing despite a lot of practice!”

A wildlife photographer in Katmai National Park, Alaska captured this video of a brown bear catching a salmon leaping out of the water and the priceless reaction of the two bears next to it.

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 Emergency Services at 403.591.7755

Bear Report - August 6, 2021