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Bears were once known as beautiful, berry eating, dangerous, yet gentle wilderness animals that minded their own business. Too often found now are mangy, garbage eating, very dangerous and destructive bears searching only for their next fix of human refuse. Several attacks have occurred in just the last few months, one where a small bear rampaged through a house where a mother and infant were present and was later shot by RCMP. If people could learn to live safely with these bears, as we are the ones moving into their homes, people could live in harmony with bears. However, we also need to recognize that we scare bears and other wildlife more than they scare us.

Every spring, the bears wake up from their winter hibernation to smell the warm breeze and are first thing looking for a good meal. Every spring, another house here and there pops up on another mountain side, valley or lake front property. If you were a bear, wouldn't you be a little ticked off when you awoke to find your home destroyed and some humans house in its place? Garbage cans line driveways, the cans full of food waste and so many different treats for a bear, how could they resist? Never mind food outside, their nose would pick that up from a mile away. Unfortunately, once a bear gets into garbage it will be a garbage bear for life. To deter bears and wildlife from our waste and lifestyle, food is best kept inside and garbage in heavy duty cans stationed to the ground. Simply, be smart and alert in the way you live in remote or rural areas. Anyone considering the move to a more peaceful backdrop needs to remember that we are the ones moving into the bears environment and we must respect these animals as much.

Many websites and your local conservation officer can provide plenty of information about how to deal with a bear encounter in the wild or outside your back door. Too many incidents to list have happened lately where bears have been intruding on and attacking people in their homes to ignore this topic any longer. The Parks Canada Website offers many pages of info on outdoor safety in Canada's wild, as well as sites such as Outdoor Adventure Canada. A mentionable find are pictures of the World's Largest Grizzly, also available on-line, these pictures have to be viewed! This bear is said to have weighed sixteen hundred pounds and stood twelve feet and six inches tall. The average brown or black bear, or grizzly for that matter, is usually found only a third of that size.

In conclusion, if we could just change a few of our habits and learn a little about these animals that seem such a nuisance, people could for the most part live in harmony with bears and all wildlife.

Learn more about this author, Jessica A. Tucker.
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