.. IT WAS a sight sure to cause a scare. u ‘about the bears’ . food. an - his office had.known about the bears for a Copper Mountain family finds grizzlies on their back deck . By MARGARET SPEIRS “Oh my God. You want to have your ar- teries cleaned out, have them on your back deck,” said Bunnie McBryan about the sight of grizzly bears in her backyard on Parmenter Ave. in the:Copper Mountain subdivision late in the evening of Sunday, Oct. 15. McBryan’s husband, Dan, heard a noise downstairs, looked out, came upstairs and told her not to go downstairs, © She looked out. the window. into their backyard and saw two grizzly cubs.on the deck at the back of the house. They called their son, Randy, who came over with his truck, drove into the back- yard and blasted the horn to scare the bears -, away. “They didn’ t want to leave,” she said hicle. . “McBryan said her son had to use his horn repeatedly to drive the bears away from her yard. One, grizzly left but the other hesitated “until her son “laid on the horn” and it fol-_ ‘ lowed. About an hour later the twins returned with a sow. “Was she ever huge,” “said McBryan, adding the sow was “massive”. “So we had some pretty good excitement.” She believes the bears were searching for She wondered if they’d bother her com- - post in the backyard and asked the conserva- » tion officer, who told her to put lime on it. _ The officer asked if she was certain they were grizzlies, . . “I said ‘yeah, they’ re brown, they had a hump and the black ring and the white ring around their necks, *” she said. These bears: were. the first ones - she’ de "seen, although she had heard there was, a . grizzly around last year. ue "Local conservation officer Blair Thin said couple of weeks. The sow and her cubs have been seen | from Copper Mountain to lower ‘Thornhill, Krumm Road and Churchill Drive.. “They’re making their way around that bench area,” he said, adding the green space is a bit of a “bear highway.” Only in the last week’ were officers aware initial reaction to the ve- — that the bears were eating from garbage and » Off fruit trees, he added. i , People i in the area seem to be waiting for fruit to ripen on the trees and have left unse- cured garbage i in the area that’s attracted the bears, he said. . Thin was hoping to use cracker shells, bear bangers and rubber slugs to drive the bears up into the hills where they wouldn’ i. cause ‘a problem, but when he arrived fast week, the bears were nowhere to be found. “We haven't been able to catch up with | _ them and utilize these methods in order to see if we could deter them ‘from hanging out in these residential areas,” he said, add- ing the bears are usually in the area between midnight and 6 a.m. eating from all the un- secured garbage cans. He didn’t set any bear traps because in this situation they could cause an‘even big- ger problem. If a cub became trapped, the sow, would become defensive to protect it, which could lead to an increased risk to public safety, he said. Thin consulted the wildlife branch in Smithers to see if anyone could come: here to help with the bears and determine wheth- er they can be relocated or have to be de- stroyed. “We are assessing the practicality or the feasibility of actually” relocating these ani- ‘mals but the more reports and more evidence _-that they’ re seen accessing garbage doesn’t look good,” he said. Thin heard one report that the sow did a “bluff charge” on someone. This is not the first time grizzlies have : ‘been spotted in Terrace, he said. 7 Last year, a 1,000 pound-plus grizzly was: hit.by a vehicle on Kalum Lake, Drive near the citydump. 8 Another grizzly that was acting. aggres- sively toward vehicles was. destroyed near’ [ Gossen Creek, Five years ago, an 800 t to 900 pound griz- ~ zly was killed behind Hawthorn Ave.:after ” ~ trying to make aden along a well-used walk- a ing trail. ‘Ifa bear is'spotted in town eating garbage : or fruit off a residential tree, call the con- servation officers at 1-877-952-7277. People. are warned not to approach bears. - If a bear poses an immediate, public safety risk, call Terrace RCMP at 638-7400. " Science World for ACtiVities & science. Atle Come in your alloween costume Community Science Celebration . 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