Residents of Calgary’s Lakeview community woke up on Tuesday morning to the sight of an uncommon new neighbour – a black bear.
A citizen of the area captured footage of their new four-legged-friend, who was spotted at the front door of his house.
While it isn’t the first time that a bear has been spotted in the area, one Lakeview resident says that the bear being this close to houses is not normal.
“A couple years ago I recall that there was a bear that made its way through Lakeview and into the golf course,” said Jesse Salus, whose neighbour captured doorcam footage of the bear.
“But I’ve never heard of a bear just walking around the streets and certainly not on our street.”
The bear seems to have taken a liking to the community’s streets, and Salus thinks that he’s been there for a couple of days.
While out walking his dogs on Wednesday morning, he said that a man in a truck pulled over and told him that there was a bear in the area.
“The guy rolled down his window, he said ‘oh hey just to let you guys know, I just saw a bear five minutes ago in Lakeview village just down the road,’” said Sallus.
Later that day, Sallus heard about the bear yet again.
“My neighbor across the street, a different neighbor than the one who took the footage, texted my wife and said, ‘a bear was spotted next door in our neighbor’s backyard,’” he said.
The bear had also destroyed another neighbour’s birdfeeder.
“He obviously was tearing up through our streets,” said Sallus.
Bears like honey, not pumpkins
On the morning of Oct. 14, Salus realized that the pumpkins he had put out were not where he left them.
“After I took the dogs out for a walk I noticed that our pumpkins were kind of moved around,” he said. “When I looked closer, I saw the bite marks in three of our four pumpkins.”
Sallus joked that the bear wasn’t a pumpkin fan.
The unnamed Lakeview bear had yet to be seen on Wedesday, but Salus said that he’s going to keep the dog door closed tonight.
Fish and wildlife are bear aware
In an email, the province confirmed the black bear sighting.
They said they’ve received reports of a black bear in Discovery Ridge, Lakeview and North Glenmore Park.
“A bear was first reported near the community of Discovery Ridge, an area surrounded by a large amount of green space,” read an email from Ina Lucila, with the Justice and Solicitor General’s office.
“The bear has been attracted by garbage bins that haven’t been secured, but isn’t remaining in one particular spot where it would be feasible to trap.”
Lucila wrote that it’s unlikely the new SW Ring Road is restricting movement of animals in the area, but it could be enabling it.
“Roads attract wildlife because they give animals a clear travel corridor, so wildlife could be using the newly cleared pathways to travel through, which could explain why there may be more wildlife sightings,” Lucila wrote.
They remind people to use bear resistant and odour-proof containers for garabage. Any attractants (pet food, dirty BBQs, outdoor food, fruit-bearing trees) should be cleaned up or removed if possible.
Dangerous wildlife can be reported in the 24-hour line: 1-800-642-3800.
The journalism you see from LiveWire Calgary is crowdfunded. We rely on the Calgarians reading our stories to help support us creating MORE of them! Become a local news champion and ensure that Calgary has fair, fact-based, independent local news that it can trust.
