Derek Neary
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (July 02/99) - Henry Lafferty was walking home with his eyes unsuspectingly scanning the ground ahead of him around 7 a.m. Monday morning.

As he turned the corner onto 101 Street, he found himself staring at a large black bear.

"I heard a little noise and I looked up and there was a bear, like 10 feet away," he said. "It didn't notice me."

When the bear did notice him, it walked across the street, he said. He immediately went to a neighbour's house and had him call renewable resources officer Ken Davidge. In the meantime, the bear wandered around the residential area. By the time Davidge arrived, the bystanders had lost sight of the bear. They eventually found him stretched out near a home, where it had apparently made a bed and left a sizable hollow spot in the ground, according to Davidge.

"He was having a little snooze when we disturbed him," he said.

The startled bear scrambled up a tree allowing Davidge to get a clean shot to bring it down and then a couple more to finish it off. Although relocating animals is the preferred route, the fact that this one was in the centre of town near a pathway commonly used by children made it too dangerous to attempt such a manoeuvre, he said.

"It could have been catastrophic," Davidge said. "I don't think twice about dispatching a bear in that situation."

It took four men to haul the 127-kilogram carcass to a truck and a fifth to help hoist it onto the back, Lafferty said.

Davidge noted that there was a family in the community that was willing to take the meat.

Later that day there was a report of another bear near the Fort Simpson industrial area.

"We're smack dab in the middle of bear country and they're looking for food," Davidge said, adding that the slain bear had also been poking through some garbage cans. Berry season is a few weeks away and that's one of their main sources of sustenance, he added.

Bears have recently become a concern in Fort Liard as well, where several have reportedly been seen at the dump and near the Beaver base camp.

It's strongly advised that people do not feed the bears.