Northern News Services
Defence kills
(North Slave region)
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Dealing with grizzly bears is part of doing business on the central barrens.
Biologists and environmentalists recognize that when people set up shop in bear habitat like the area between the treeline and the arctic coast, bears will be killed in defence of life and property.
"It's going to happen, whether it's a mining camp, an exploration camp or an outfitter," said barrenland outfitter and lodge owner Jim Peterson. "We're in bear country."
Justified kills
Two 'defence kills' were reported this year. Following are accounts of those kills taken from investigations by wildlife officers.
As the sun set on Aug. 29, a barrenland grizzly wandered into a caribou-hunting camp, attracted by the smell of meat hanging on racks.
The grizzly ignored badgering from a camp dog and rubber bullets. It charged when cracker shells were fired.
Working by spotlight, and with the safety of guests and property at stake, the outfitter decided he had no choice but to kill the animal.
On Sept. 8 a bow hunter and his guide had spotted a group of caribou crossing a stream. The Minnesota hunter and Dogrib guide skirted around a stand of willows to intercept the animals. For some reason the caribou changed course.
The bow hunter stood up and looked to see what had spooked them. Standing up and staring back at him from the middle of the willows 20 metres away was an adult grizzly.
The bow hunter attempted to alert the guide, but the guide's view of the bear was obscured. He called out louder. The bear charged. The guide missed on his first shot, but a split second later fired his second shot, which saved the Minnesota hunter's life.
"We feel they were both legitimate kills," said Raymond Bourget, senior wildlife officer for the North Slave region.
Defensive kills are only permitted as a last resort, explained Bourget.
"If a person was camping and saw a bear walk by and they were afraid that it was going to come and attack them and they shot it -- sort of a pre-emptive strike -- they would probably be charged for that," he said.
Bear candy stores
Though bears will investigate food odours emanating from barrenland mines and exploration camps -- there was one defensive kill at BHP last fall -- caribou hunting camps are particularly attractive.
The appetites of grizzlies peak in the fall, as the pressure of going without food during their six-months denning period closes in.
Their attention turns from roots, berries and small mammals to caribou.
Caribou hunting camps, with fresh meat hanging off racks are almost irresistible to the 600 to 1,200 bears on the central barrens.
"Those very powerful smells pull in bears from miles around," said carnivore biologist Robert Mulders.
Recognizing how attractive the hunting camps and mines are to bears, the government requires all developments on the barrens to have in place systems for minimizing that attraction and for deterring those that do come in.
Minimizing the impact
"The first and foremost thing is keeping a clean camp," said Peterson. "We fly all our garbage out. Even if you burn and bury it they will smell it."
"To me, you've got to keep bears from being fed," said outfitter Boyd Warner. "If they get a taste of food you're going to have a problem."
Warner is introducing a specially bred bear dog as a deterrent.
He also uses bear fences and trip alarms -- wires that trigger an air horn -- around some of the buildings more likely to attract bears.
Bear fences, strands of wire carrying 6,000 to 10,000 volt charges, are used by six out of the 10 outfitters on the central barrens.
Fenced out
RWED wants more outfitters to use bear fences. Until a few years ago, the government was willing to pay more than half the cost of establishing the barriers.
Some outfitters took them up on the offer.
Others, like the one who killed the bear that came into camp this year, did not.
Mulders said the government has urged outfitters to put up fences around areas, such as meat racks, that are particularly attractive to bears.
"I really think it's the way to go," he said.
Mulders suspects the time is near when the fences will be made a mandatory part of bear deterrent systems.
The fences will not eliminate defence kills -- surprise encounters like the bow hunter's are inevitable -- but Mulders believes they will reduce the number of grizzlies killed in hunting camps.
