Bear cub euthanized after wandering onto Calgary-area ranch

What seems to have been an orphaned black bear cub has met a tragic finish within the Priddis space, simply southwest of Calgary.

It began on a cattle ranch on Thursday, Oct 1.

“I got here out with my espresso within the morning, and there was this bear cub sitting on our entrance porch,” rancher Jim Coleman mentioned. “This little man, it seemed like he hadn’t been consuming, so we put out some apples for him.”

The cub made himself proper at residence.

“He was consuming apples within the apple tree proper adjoining to our entrance door, wandering round, probably not bothering anybody,” Coleman mentioned.

The younger bear remained across the property by Friday with no signal of a mom bear, so Coleman figured he’d higher name in a conservation officer.

“He mentioned the bear cub wouldn’t survive the winter, and he was going to place him down,” Coleman mentioned, “and that appalled me.”

An announcement emailed to International Information by Alberta Fish and Wildlife says the “tough choice” to shoot the bear was made as a result of it was “very skinny and didn’t look like wholesome.”

The assertion says the bear had “little likelihood of restoration” and was doubtlessly harmful to folks within the space.

“Generally after we suppose we’re being useful, we are literally being dangerous,” wildlife biologist Sarah Elmeligi mentioned. “It’s essential to by no means feed bears; it by no means ends properly for bears.”

There are steps rural residents can take to scale back the dangers of bear encounters.

“Placing horse feed inside some form of hard-sided construction {that a} bear can’t get into,” Elmeligi mentioned. “It might contain placing electrical fences round hen coops, in order that bears maintain occurring their merry approach and discover meals elsewhere.”

Coleman says there might have been a greater consequence for the bear.

“I feel the bear ought to’ve been trapped and relocated,” Coleman mentioned. “I received’t enable conservation officers onto my property once more with weapons. I might most likely attempt to run the bear off myself.”