This city has seen the most black bear deaths in BC this year
A BC-based charity has released a list that shows where the top ten deadliest communities for black bears in the province are, and one city was revealed to have 76 black bear deaths this year.
The data obtained by the charity The Fur-Bearers from the BC Conservation Officer Service (BC COS) identified Prince George as the deadliest area for black bears. Prince George had over double the amount of deaths than the second-highest city in the province.
Other notable BC cities that have seen many black bear deaths include 31 in Kamloops, 28 in Mackenzie, and 24 in Smithers.
The charity released the list with the goal of hoping that the communities can make “changes to reduce negative encounters, and ultimately deaths of black bears,” according to the news release.
The Fur-Bearers shared that many of the encounters that led to BCCOS officers to kill black bears was a result of “attractant management,” which includes garbage being left out inappropriately, and fallen fruit being uncollected.
Despite this list showing where hundreds of black bear deaths occurred throughout the province, the charity shared in the news release that this number is less than half of the total number of black bears killed.
āUnfortunately, this year, the BC COS only provided ten communities ā and did not tell us where they killed 356 of the alarming 603 black bears killed,” said Lesley Fox, Executive Director of The Fur-Bearers, in the news release.
Fox called the government’s failure to release the location of the remaining black bear deaths “completely unacceptable both for conservation and government accountability.”
āWeāre calling on the BC COS to begin publishing bear kill statistics monthly, by location, for the public to see. There is no way for communities to do better when they donāt know thereās a problem,” she said.
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