Bear killed
By TARINA WHITE, CALGARY SUN
UPDATED: 2006-05-19 17:52:39 MST
calsun.canoe.ca
After attempts were unsuccessful to tranquilize a bear that had wandered into residential Innisfail, the animal had to be shot and killed
A black bear that wandered into a residential area of Innisfail Thursday night was shot and killed after attempts to tranquilize the animal failed.
Residents in the west end of Innisfail called police when they spotted the bruin roaming through a golf course and a skateboard park around 9 p.m.
Red Deer Fish and Wildlife officers tried for about 90 minutes to scare the bear up a tree, where it would be safe to fire at it with a tranquilizer dart, said officer Greg Kondas.
“It just would not co-operate,” he said.
The bear crossed back and forth across a residential street in the subdivision of Madison Park and strolled into a cemetery, posing an “imminent safety concern,” said Kondas.
RCMP in the town 100 km north of Calgary blocked vehicle and pedestrian traffic on 50 St. and 60 Ave. and monitored the Madison Park and Aspen Heights subdivisions.
The area on the ground was not secure to fire a tranquilizer, said Kondas, adding a large crowd had gathered to watch the bear.
“It could charge, it could bolt out of that location,” he said.
The animal was killed by a single bullet from a shotgun, said Kondas.
The bruin, believed to be two years old and weighing about 150-lb., was extremely thin and likely searching for food, he said. The wayward Innisfail bear comes on the heels of a bear attack in Banff last weekend.
Greg Flaaten, 41, was mauled by a black bear near Tunnel Mountain on May 12 while he was cycling along a popular trail. He continues to recover in Foothills hospital.
Banff National Park’s Chief Warden Ian Syme said all trails in the park are open for the long weekend.
Syme advises recreationalists to make noise to ward off bears and to be alert for signs of the animals, such as tracks in the mud and roots along the trail that bears pull out and eat.
He said there are believed to be about eight grizzly bears and five black bears roaming the valley.
“It doesn't mean you shouldn't be there, it just means you have to take those precautions,” said Syme.
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