After about a week of having the trap set, conservation officers have finally nabbed a large male black bear in Honeymoon Bay.
Good news for the community, not so good news for the bear.
“He’s right on the verge,” conservation officer Mark Kissinger said, of whether or not the bear can be rehabilitated. “He’s been causing a fair bit of property damage. These bears, that are so habituated, tend to come back from a long distance.”
The bear had dug out a den in the woods, nearby, filled with garbage it had been eating.
Although Kissinger notes that residents in the area have been doing a good job of locking their garbage away, the intelligent bear has found a way of getting to it.
A nearby dumpster had been knocked over, chrome was ripped off of the trunk of a car (in order to get to some bread that was in the trunk), and nearby garbage containers have teeth marks in them.
The sooner bears are called in, the less likely they will have to be put down, as they’ll be less habituated, Kissinger said.
Bear sightings can be called in to 1-877-952-7277.
In response to the local bear problem, local resident Susan Restall, and others, are considering starting a Bear Aware program.
“We’re going to be looking into it, and making people educated as to what they should not do,” Restall said.