CONSERVATION OFFICERS hover over drugged kermodei in
preparation {for airlifting the white bear to prime and safe habitat.

Ei

The sow just couldn't stay away from the area around the Terrace
dump. But before she leit, tissue samples for research were taken.

Kermodei gets ticket to ride

By DAVE TAYLOR
THE WANDERING ghost bear of Kalum Lake
Drive flew away to paradise last week, while
helping to further scientific research.

The troublesome white Kermodei was nabbed
on a farm near the Terrace dump last Tuesday,
after eluding conservation officers’ traps and
snares for weeks,

**The only reason we caught her is because
she went into the chicken coop and the door
closed behind her,’’ says officer Ken Fujino.

The bear was first nabbed two months ago,
and relocated more than 100 kilometres away,
A few weeks later, she returned.

However unless she’s a very good swimmer,
this kermodei won’t be coming home again.

Conservation officers tranquilized the bear
and flew her to Princess Royal Island on Wed-
nesday, suspended in a net from a helicopter.

Princess Royal Island is considered prime
habilat for kermodeis, a genetic offshoot of the
black bear.

But’ before: the bear was released;. wildlife *:
branch veterinarian Helen Schwantje took tissue _
and blood samples. Schwantje is doing genetic

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research on black bears in B,C., and she has had
ahard time getting kermodei samples.

“This problem bear was just perfect,’’ she
says. ‘We got lucky because we didn’t have to
spend time and money looking for one,’’

Schwantje says the bear was probably quite ’

old, She was missing one of her canines, and the
rest of her teeth were very worn, Black bears
are known to live into their early twenties, and
Schwantje estimates that this bear was probably
in her late teens. ‘‘She was probably a bit
arthritic as well,” Schwantje says. ‘‘Definilely
not a prime animal.”

That helps explain why the bear was going
after easy meals like the chicken and pig food
found on farms.

Some of the samples Schwantje gathered will
be sent to geneticist Dr. Murray Brilliant, at the
Fox Chase Cancer Centre in Philadelphia.

“Dr. Brilliant’s work is unusual in that he
looks at RNA rather than DNA,” Schwantje

- says. ““The guy is so smart that ie Ws hard, ‘to Un-
. derstand what he’s talking about.’

- Brilliant i is~-researching the gene that™ he
believes causes the white colour in kermodeis.

That same P-gene exists in humans as well,
and Brilliant thinks that there may be a connec-
tion between a mutation in this gene and skin
cancer,

“We don't know the role of the P-gene in

-melanoma,’’ Brilliant says. ‘‘But it is one of the

genes that we think plays a central rale in
normal pigmentation.’*

That means that a mutation of the P-gene
could potentially trigger a tumor.

Brilliant was last sent a kermodej tissue
sample more than two years ago from Gimpy,
the famous while bear who was found poached
near Terrace. But Gimpy’ S tissues had already
degraded.

However, Brilliant says thal fresh tissues from
the new bear could prove useful.

The old white sow will now get to live out her
days in paradise, with others of her kind,

“She woke up next to a stream filled with
pink salmon and banks lined with buckleberties
ihe size of your thumbnail,’ Schwanije said.
“She'll think she’s s" died: and gone 4. hear
heaven’? * i

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 25, 1996 - A3

News in Brief

Pedal to the metal

PREMIER GLEN Clark may not be able to deliver a
balanced budget, but he is allowing us to drive faster.

As of Oct. 1, motorists will be able to drive 100kph
the enlire length of Hwy16 in B.C. and Hwy37 north
from Kitwanga to the Meziadin Junction.

Limits on seven highways are being increased. The
list includes Hwy97 from Dawson Creek to the Yukon,
and the stretch from Cranbook north to Golden.

“A significant percentage of drivers are already
travelling at 100km/h on these sections. In addition, the
number of speed-related accidents is low, and the road
alignment allows for the higher speed,’" said Clark

Highways officials will keep watch to make sure
drivers don’t start speeding excessively as a result of
the increases. Safety is the prime concern.

The increased speed limit also fostered speculation
that the speed level tolerated by the police, which is
usually above the limit, may aise be raised, No police
officers were immediately available to comment.

Making the news

WE MAY not be able to watch il live, but we will be
able to see excerpts of a discussion between Skeena
Reform MP Mike Scott and former MP Jim Fulton on
the Nisga’a land claims agreement in principle,

They have opposing views on the tentative Nisga’a
deal and air them tomorrow at 1 p.m. on ‘‘Politics,”’ a
show carried on CBC-TV’s Newsworld news channel.

Newsworld isn’t carried on much of the northwest’s
cable system but excerpts will be carried tomorrow on
TV7’s 3:30 p.m. First News.

And there’s a chance the eight minute segment will
be used on a TV7 Skeena Journal piece later on.

Man robbed again

A 64-YEAR-OLD Terrace man who was brutally
beaten in June was tied up and robbed of around
$2,700 cash in his own house Jast weck.

The latest attack on Abe Bushman occurred at 1:30
p-m. last Tuesday at the man’s 4455 Park Ave. home,

The knife-wiclding masked robber accosted Bushman
in his kitchen, tied him up and ransacked the house.

“TE never heard him until there was a knife in my
back," Bushman told the Standard.

He says he was thrown to the ground and in the pro-
cess reinjured his broken shoulder. Bushman says he
told the robber where the money was because he feared
the intruder would find his gun and then shoot him.

Bushman admitted he has sold cigarettes and acted as
a pawn-broker from his house. He says that all ended a
couple of years ago, but speculated that the atiacker
thought he was still in the business and had ready cash.

Bushman said he estimates his loss at $2,700 cash,
which he says he was saving for car insurance and
taxes. He said he won't keep large sums at home again.

Police searched the area but made no arrests,

RCMP Const. Russ Sangster sald there’s no evidence
so far that the armed robbery is linked to the June 10th
attack that sent Bushman to Vancouver hospital for fa-
cial reconstructive surgery. ‘“We're treating this as an
isolated incident,” Sangster said.

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