Experts urge caution as Metro Vancouver bears prepare for winter

Many of Metro Vancouver’s bears are busy at the moment, with a favourite food source ripening up in many yards.

The North Shore Black Bear Society says it has already been fielding a lot of calls about sightings in North and West Vancouver.

“At this time of year, the major attractants are the usual garbage and organic waste, but also fruit trees are a really big attractant right now,” said the society’s Assistant Executive Director Holly Reisner. “Apple trees, fig trees, plums, pears, anything you can think of — bears love fruit. They’re all ripening at the moment so the bears are coming in to eat that.”

Reisner is asking anyone with a fruit tree on their property to pick up any fallen fruit daily and store it inside until garbage collection day.

“Also, harvest your fruit a little early, please,” she adds. “Just before it gets ripe, we’d love to see all that fruit come down off those trees so the bears aren’t coming in to feed on them.”

She says as long as there is fruit hanging in a tree, a bear will come back daily until it is gone.

“Bears have such amazing memories that they will actually come back next year to check that tree again.”

Bird feeders, including hummingbird nectar, are also a prime attractant, so Reisner suggests bringing them in this time of year.

“If you want to support birds in your yard, we recommend planting flowers that hummingbirds like and maybe leaving some water out for them, but we shouldn’t be feeding any wildlife at all,” she told CityNews.

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As the summer ends, bears are entering into the time of year when they will eat up to 20 hours a day, packing in calories to prepare for the winter denning season.

“Now is the time to really practice securing your wildlife attractants on your property. If we can really put the effort in now to start freezing smelly food waste and not putting things out until collection day, it’s really going to help once we get into the ‘hyperphagia’ season in a month or so when the bears are really actively seeking anything they can find to eat.”

While Reisner says there are no available statistics on the bear population of the North Shore, the North Shore Black Bear Society has been busy this summer taking calls and doing outreach.

“We’re constantly trying to get that message out there, sometimes it feels a little like ‘whack-a-mole” as I’m constantly telling people to please keep your organic waste inside until collection day and freeze the really smelly parts of it,” she said.

“We are constantly repeating that message to the community and there certainly is a large contingent of people on the North Shore who know we are lucky to live next to these amazing animals and understand we have responsibilities to them for keeping them safe.”

But Reisner says not everyone puts in the extra effort needed to secure bear attractants.

“Unfortunately, if you have a whole block of people who are being super careful with their attractants and you have one house that isn’t, then it’s going to bring that bear in. It does take a really high level of compliance to help these animals.”

The BC Conservation Officer Service was unable to provide current data on bear conflicts in Metro Vancouver, telling CityNews its officers are very busy this time of year and it would take time away from their duties to tabulate statistics, but Reisner says she knows of only two fatal outcomes for bears this year.

“We’ve had a couple, unfortunately, earlier in the season. It was very typical behaviour around July when young bears are being dispersed from their mothers. These bears are off wandering around, being confused and not really sure what they should be doing” she said.

“A young, inexperienced bear will sometimes wander into a house if someone has left their door open. That has happened a couple of times and that is not behaviour that is tolerated, so we have had a couple of bears lose their lives.”

She says “a couple of bears” have also been killed by vehicle strikes on the North Shore this year but, generally, the number of bear fatalities is getting better year-by-year compared to 15 years ago when the North Shore Black Bear Society started its messaging.

“Of course, we never want to lose a single bear but it does happen. We want people to be aware that we live in and around wildlife — it’s all over the North Shore — and we do need to take care to keep the animals safe.”