WATCH: A hunter is recovering in a Kootenay hospital after being mauled by a grizzly bear. It’s the latest in a growing number of attacks by the animals this summer. Jordan Armstrong reports.
Conservation officers are reminding British Columbians to be bear aware, after another person was attacked by a grizzly bear – the fourth incident already this month.
“People are going to have to be particularly vigilant over the next two months until these bears go in hibernation,” cautions conservation officer Sergeant Cam Schley of Cranbrook.
A man was hunting northeast of Sparwood, in the Grave Prairie area, when he came across a mother bear and her cub around 7:30 this morning.
“The hunter was just out walking this morning, and was just in the wrong place and the wrong time. There appears to have been nothing that the hunter could have done any differently to have prevented this,” says Schley.
The man suffered serious, but non-life threatening injuries, and managed to make his way to Sparwood Hospital.
The Grave Prairie site is closed to the public while conservation officers investigate and clean up an elk carcass in the area.
Fourth attack in September
The attack follows three prior grizzly bear attacks this month: one near Cranbrook, one in Canal Flats south of Invermere, and another one last weekend near Fort Nelson.
Schley says none of the injuries incurred are life-threatening, but that warm weather could have something to do with the increase in interactions.
“In the east Kootenays, this has been a very very dry year, and because of that, the berry crop has been poor. Bears are trying to fatten up for hibernation and they’re in search of food. But because there isn’t a great berry crop this year, it’s causing bears to forage elsewhere to find that food.”
The pair of British Columbia hunters recovering from a grizzly bear attack in Fort Nelson are taking extra steps to make
sure their rescuers know just how thankful they are.
Chris Eyre and Robbie Austin have set up an online fundraiser to thank the conservation officers, paramedics and search-and-rescue crew responsible for saving their lives.
The two were hunting for sheep last Sunday in the Buckinghorse River area north of Fort Nelson when they stumbled across a mother bear and her two cubs.
They say the grizzly first attacked Eyre before going after Austin.
Eyre used his GPS and called for help, but the pair had to spend the night in the woods before being rescued. The two men are recuperating in hospital in Vancouver.
In total, there have been seven grizzly bear attacks in British Columbia this year, and five black bear attacks.
– With files from The Canadian Press
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