Ten days after three black bear cubs were found in a Banff National Park washroom, Parks Canada says it is still working on a “final home” for the roughly three-month-old bears. But one wildlife society in British Columbia says permission was denied to bring the cubs there, and another in Ontario was surprised to learn it’s against provincial policy to release rehabilitated bears back into the Alberta wilderness.
The Northern Lights Wildlife Society in Smithers, B.C., said last week it was contacted about rehabilitating the cubs, but British Columbia’s policy is to release bears back into the area from which they came.
Watch below from April 8: Three bear cubs found trapped in a washroom in Banff will not be send to a rehab society in BC. Kristen Robinson has more.
The B.C. Ministry of Environment told Global News Friday that its understanding was the cubs were going to be accepted at the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Ontario.
“Parks Canada has requested a transport permit to drive the bears into B.C. to the Cranbrook airport,” a spokesperson said in an email to Global News. “The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations is accommodating this request.”
Global News followed up with Parks Canada, who said the Ontario plan was “speculation.”
“We have not entered into any agreements regarding a home for these bears,” Banff Field Unit spokesperson Christie Thomson told Global News in an email. “Any suggestion to the contrary is speculation.”
Watch below from April 7: Three bear cubs are now being cared for by Parks Canada staff, after being found locked in a road-side bathroom. As Jenna Freeman reports, officials are now trying to figure out how they ended up in there.
Thomson added the B.C. government “has been very generous in agreeing to give Parks Canada necessary permits for moving the bears out of B.C. if needed.”
Meantime, the managing director of the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary said Tuesday his group has submitted an application to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry for approval to bring the cubs for rehabilitation at his facility.
“In which case, they’d go back to Banff in a year,” Howard Smith said, noting nothing had been finalized or approved as of Tuesday.
But the executive director for fish and wildlife policy at Alberta Environment and Parks said the rehabilitation of black bears is not allowed in Alberta.
“Our policy in Alberta is that we don’t allow the rehabilitation of bears,” Travis Ripley said. “There’s several factors: there’s already a very high population of bears in the province…other reasons include a high degree of risk of habituation in certain facilities and the protocols aren’t in line in Alberta right now to make sure bears aren’t placed in a habituated situation.”
He said a “habituated situation” is what happens when bears are in contact with humans during feeding and care maintenance.
“That predisposes a bear to have an unnatural tendency to not fear humans,” he said. “So what happens is there’s a low survival rate once they’re released.”
Ripley suggested wild adult bears will also kill rehabilitated bears that—lacking natural instincts—enter the other bear’s territory.
Though no export permit to allow the bears to travel out of province had been issued by the Alberta government as of Tuesday, Ripley said the decision on where the bears go next ultimately lies with Parks Canada.
Smith said his Ontario facility is hoping to finalize plans in the next few days, but believes there’s no reason the cubs can’t eventually be released back into the wilderness.
“At that age, they’re perfectly re-habitable and should be able to go back into the wild,” Smith said. “That is a condition – if they come to us, that’s what would have to happen.”
Smith added the bears wouldn’t be able to stay in Ontario.
“They would have to go back to the same place they came from – well not quite the same place; not the washroom.”
When asked about the apparent discrepancy between the Alberta government policy to not rehabilitate bears and the Ontario centre’s view that the bears would need to be returned and released in the wild, Parks Canada said it has had conversations with “multiple organizations over the last week about homing these bears.”
“No final location has been identified yet,” spokesperson Christina Tricomi said Tuesday. “While actively caring for the cubs, Parks Canada is in active discussions and hopes to have a confirmed location soon.”
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