Wildlife guardians work to keep bears and visitors safe in Waterton

If you’re planning a trip to Waterton Lakes National Park for the long weekend, there’s a good chance you’ll encounter bears.

It’s a common sight this time of the year, as the bears forage for berries preparing for the winter.

With an increase in visitation to the park thanks to Canada 150 and free discovery passes, staff are expecting this weekend to be one of the busiest yet.

“We want to make it a positive experience for folks,” Dan Rafla, human wildlife conflict specialist said. “But we also want to make it a healthy atmosphere for wildlife to exist on the landscape.”

Rafla is helping to monitor the situation along with his team of six wildlife guardians. He says there are currently 80-90 black bears and 12 grizzly bears that use Waterton as part of their home territory.

“Our main duty in the park is cruising the parkways for bear jams,” wildlife guardian Tomma Thomas said. “A bear jam is when there’s a bear roadside, and a car will stop and more cars will stop and it creates a big traffic jam.”

Something she says is an issue for the safety of both bears and visitors, and unless the bears are at least 100 metres away, they like to keep the traffic moving.

“Often, people are very close to bears, like two to three metres,” Thomas said. “That is way too close. It can contribute to the habituation of the wildlife which we really want to avoid.”

Currently, there are two bears including one named Blaze, that are being tracked and monitored with GPS collars.

“She’s a good example of a bear who’s living on the landscape and we are making efforts to keep her alive,” Rafla said. “But it could have been avoided with people keeping a very clean campsite or picnic area, and we also know she’s very likely been hand fed from vehicles.”

The guardians also work to educate visitors to help reduce close encounters with wildlife.

“I constantly remind people and encourage people to make a lot of noise as they’re travelling on the trails,” wildlife guardian Laura Caruth said. “Bust out their favourite songs, sing on the trails.”

But it’s not just the bears that people have to keep in mind.

“Other wildlife we see would be moose, deer, big horned sheep — we have a lot of sheep jams too to mix it up but bears are the main wildlife we deal with,” Thomas said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Other wildlife we see would be moose, deer, big horned sheep — we have a lot of sheep jams too to mix it up but bears are the main wildlife we deal with," Thomas said.

Visitors are encouraged to call 1-888-WARDENS which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to report any problems they encounter.

“We want to keep the wild in wildlife,” Thomas said. “They’re not pets. We can’t get close to them. We have to respect distance.”