Training exercises before the start of a mission is common for many officers—including members of the British Columbia Conservation Officer Service.
Over 40 of them gathered in Chilliwack last week for five days of training, in preparation for bears ending their hibernation season.
“These conservation officers are part of predator attack team,” said Sgt. Kevin Van Damme, one of the officers overseeing the exercises.
“They have a higher level of training, they respond as a team on serious matters to investigate the incident…and capture and deal with the offending animal.”
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In 2015, 664 black bears and 132 cougars were killed by conservation officers—and they received thousands more calls from worried civilians.
“We have bears and cougars that are on the landscape, and they’re not a threat to public safety, but at times an individual cougar or bears may attack a person, and that individual animal we need to investigate and capture,” said Van Damme.
“We just encourage the public to do their best to…secure and keep those food sources away from those wild animals, and they won’t be in conflict with you. We don’t want to deploy these guys this year.”