Bear killing local sheep, Vancouver Island farmers say

Farmers in Metchosin on Vancouver Island say they’re losing sheep to a single killer bear and they believe some residents have actually been protecting the bear from being caught.

Lorraine Buchanan, who owns Parry Bay Farm with her husband John, recently discovered a dead, disfigured sheep on her property and believes a bear is to blame.

“It’s been in carports, it actually went into a barn up on Saddleback Road and took a sheep out of the barn and killed it,” she said.

Husband John said they’ve been having problems with bears for roughly the past five years.

This year has been particularly challenging since the black bear threatening the sheep “doesn’t come back to the kill so he’s harder to catch,” John said.

All told, the Buchanans have lost nine sheep over the past six weeks – all believed to be from bear attacks – but they say the number of lost sheep could be “more like 15,” Lorraine said.

Officials say more than 20 sheep on various local farms have been killed in recent weeks.

Early efforts to track the bear were hampered by some residents urging others not to report sightings.

“We set up the traps, the trail cameras, tried to get an idea of what the behaviour is, where the bear is, what it’s doing, but we’re not getting anything. It’s not coming back ever,” conservation officer Scott Norris said.

Norris said the dry weather could be impacting bears’ food sources.

“Anybody who’s got livestock needs to try to take some steps to protect their livestock, whether it’s keeping them in at night, having electric fencing in the fields where they’re at, having dogs to protect them, that sort of thing,” Norris said.

The Buchanans also want to avoid a run-in with the bear themselves.

“It is a little unnerving walking through the bush, if you figure there’s a bear there wanting to finish off whatever they’re eating,” said Lorraine.

— With files from Neetu Garcha