A Calgary woman who encountered a grizzly bear while running in Griffith Woods Park in the city’s southwest is crediting her dog with saving her life.
The park was closed on Tuesday evening after a couple of reported sightings in the area over the past couple of weeks.
Officials from Alberta Fish and Wildlife are currently working to trap the bear so it can be evaluated and relocated.
Tresa Gibson said she was running with her dog, Ellie, through the park last Wednesday when she heard a rustle in the bush up ahead.
The dog ran ahead and Gibson said she though maybe a deer or coyote was further up along the trail.
“And suddenly she let out a couple of warning barks and turned her body and squared her body off to the side of the trail and I thought, ‘Something still there, she hasn’t chased it off,'” she said Wednesday.
“I caught up with her and turned and looked and right there, about six to eight feet away, was a grizzly bear.”
Gibson said the bear, which was eating berries and branches, didn’t even look up and didn’t appear to be startled by the dog’s bark.
She said the fight or flight instinct took over and she told her dog to heel and then the pair started running again. They ran about a kilometre back to their car, which was parked on the west side of the park, and drove to the main parking lot to warn others.
WATCH: Warning signs have gone up in a popular Calgary park after two run-ins with a grizzly bear. Tony Tighe reports.
“I started warning people who were about to go on the trail as I was calling Parks and Wildlife because I didn’t want people taking their little kids and bikes out there,” she said.
‘If he wanted me, I was toast’
Gibson said she was surprised and frightened by the encounter. She’s come across wild animals before while running in city parks, but never a grizzly bear.
“It was a scary moment to accept that… if he wanted me, I was toast,” she said.
“This was out of my hands and that’s a scary situation to be in.”
Gibson credits Ellie with warning her and likely saving her life on the trail that day.
“She was awesome because she did warn me,” she said.
“I mean, what if I had ran up and startled him and he did come after me… maybe the barking and the hulabuloo made him not want to come after me, not care.”
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