alfie-
here's something else for the tree.
i notice there's an empty spot, just
to the right there - second branch
from the bottom just next to the
spittoon.
Orphaned bears find friends in B.C. kids
Province's wildlife policy is changed after youngsters' lobbying campaign
By MARK HUME
VANCOUVER -- When 13-year-old Alev Olcay and her little sister, Lara, learned orphaned bear cubs in their North Vancouver neighbourhood were routinely being killed for pilfering garbage, they were horrified.
Using the power of MSN, an Internet messaging service popular with kids, the Olcay sisters soon enlisted the help of several friends to launch a political lobbying campaign that, against all odds, has changed provincial wildlife policy.
The government announced this week that from now on, bear cubs that are captured in urban areas will be sent to rehabilitation centres, to be raised until they are old enough to fend for themselves.
"They are going to take care of all the black bears now," Alev said after learning of the change. "I was really, really excited when I heard that. I told all my friends right away. Everyone is really happy."
Wildlife officers have been killing problem bears in North Vancouver ever since people started living in the area, which backs onto wilderness just a short commute across Burrard Inlet from downtown Vancouver. The problem peaked in 1999, when 39 bears were killed, but the situation has improved since then. Last year, only one bear was killed.
But this fall, for reasons that aren't fully understood -- although poaching is suspected -- a growing number of orphaned bear cubs have been showing up on city streets. Without mothers to guide them, an estimated 20 cubs and young bears under two years of age have been wandering into backyards and jumping into dumpsters near schools, apartment buildings and supermarkets. On one occasion, a bear even walked into a home to steal a newly cooked pie.
Responding to complaints, wildlife officials recently killed five bears.
Alev and Lara, who is 10, began the campaign to save the bear cubs last month after reading a story in the local paper about two bear cubs that had been foraging in a supermarket garbage container.
"There was two little baby bears and they'd been handcuffed and shot. I was really shocked and really angry," said Alev, who got on MSN right away to organize a protest.
The bears are shot with tranquillizer guns, then euthanized.
Over the past few weeks the group, calling itself Care4thebears, set up a website, met with city council, appeared on television shows and distributed posters featuring a picture of a tiny black bear, standing on a porch railing next to a bird feeder.
"A Christmas Pardon would save my life!" said the headline on the poster, which urged the public to write to Premier Gordon Campbell.
"Tourism uses nature and wildlife to promote British Columbia. When people learn WE SHOOT BABY BEARS . . . WHAT WILL THEY THINK?" the children wrote in their own letter to Mr. Campbell.
"Christmas is coming. There are more baby bears without mothers. THEY NEED OUR HELP! PLEASE use your power for something good."
Water, Land and Air Protection Minister Bill Barisoff said he discussed the issue with Mr. Campbell and decided to commute the death sentences for bear cubs.
"What we've decided is that we're going to move to the rehabilitation program. We have four in care right now . . . and we'll certainly look to see if there's the ability to take more because there's an indication there might be four to eight more that are there [in North Vancouver]."
Mr. Barisoff said the campaign by the kids persuaded him to re-examine a long-standing policy that allowed provincial wildlife officers to kill orphaned bear cubs found foraging in urban areas. Adult bears are often relocated to wilderness areas, but cubs were routinely killed because it was thought they had little chance of surviving on their own.
"There's science that indicates it could possibly go either way in what happens to the bears . . . you know, whether they will survive in the wilds. But certainly it wasn't convincing enough for me not to take that chance to try it and see what happens."
He said the bears will be held in captivity until the spring when, older and larger, they will have a better chance of making it on their own.
Alev said the lobbying campaign has taught her a valuable lesson.
"I learned if you're persistent, you can usually get what you want. You just have to believe in yourself, and you go for it."
The kids aren't giving up yet, however. Because wildlife rehabilitation centres in B.C. are financed by donations, Care4thebears plans a campaign to raise funds, perhaps with a rock concert, if the children can find a band willing to play.
Tony Webb, whose North Shore Black Bear Network has worked for years on the area's bear problem, praised the children for bringing public attention to the issue.
"Good on them," he said.
The influx of orphaned cubs this year is hard to explain, Mr. Webb said. Although it's suspected that poachers may have killed many of the mother bears, it's also possible the cubs were abandoned because of a berry crop failure this fall, which came just as the bear population peaked.
Mr. Webb's group recently persuaded the City of North Vancouver to strike a task force to study the bear issue. He said in the long run, the solution is to find ways to keep bears from coming into the city and that means educating the public about bear behaviour.
theglobeandmail.com
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