Yellowknife (Nov 24/04) - A Yellowknife musher says wildlife officers should have warned the public about a grizzly bear as it made its way towards Yellowknife last week.

The starving adult male bear was shot by a pair of wildlife officers with the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development (RWED) only a kilometre or two outside Yellowknife on Great Slave Lake last Thursday morning.

The grizzly -- which was well out of its normal range -- charged officers almost immediately after they encountered it.

Earlier the same day, the grizzly had crossed into city limits and was travelling down a snowmobile trail towards Kam Lake, where many people keep their sled dogs.

Dog musher Boyd Warner said he can't understand why the public wasn't warned, especially after the department began receiving reports of a large brown bear with a "hump" on its back on the Ingraham Trail more than two weeks ago.

"If there was a murderer slowly stalking his way towards Yellowknife, you might want to notify the people," said Warner.

The first public notice about the bear came as a press statement issued by RWED, Thursday afternoon, announcing that a grizzly had been shot a few hours earlier.

"A big bear roaming around in November means trouble," said Warner, a big game outfitter with many years of experience dealing with grizzlies at his hunting camps out on the Barrens.

"There's not a person in the world who knows anything about bears that would've said anything different. There's a reason that bear is not in hibernation."

Lawrence Cassaway said he came across the grizzly's tracks while out checking his traplines on Hay Lake last Wednesday, about nine kilometres north of Dettah.

Cassaway said he notified the community office at once. The grizzly was spotted at the Dettah dump the night before.

"It wasn't a small, little bear, for sure," said Cassaway.

The morning the bear was killed, it was seen crossing Yellowknife Bay near Dettah. Cassaway believes there easily could've been a tragedy had the bear entered the community while children were outside playing.

"He was hungry," said Cassaway. "He would charge, there's no doubt about it."

Officers knocked on doors

Senior wildlife officer Raymond Bourget said that Dettah residents were notified. He said an officer knocked on doors Tuesday evening, warning of a large bear that had been spotted nearby.

Bourget said his department didn't know for sure they were dealing with a grizzly until it was dead and a closer examination could take place.

"We were aware of a bear near Tibbitt Lake and that part of the country, and bears are always out there," said Bourget.

"The only time when there was really a concern for the public was when the bear showed up on the highway near Dettah."

He said people should be wary of bears while they're out in the bush, even in November.

"It's not uncommon to have bears out of their dens in November, particularly male bears," said Bourget.

"So that's why when the bear was reported out by Tibbitt Lake, it was recorded, but we didn't start going out looking for the bear."

Mayor Gord Van Tighem, however, said a public notice should've extended to Yellowknife last Tuesday and not just Dettah. He pointed to the close proximity between the two communities, and the natural ice bridge that joins them. "If there's wolves wandering around, or coyotes, they provide information, but on this one they didn't," said Van Tighem.

"Some of the areas the bear was in, people were walking their dogs or jogging or whatever."

Warner, meanwhile, said increased reports of predator sightings near Yellowknife are making some people jittery, particularly those who own sled dogs. A wolf killed a sled dog at a Kam Lake kennel a couple of months ago.

Just last Saturday, he came across a wolf carcass on the south end of Kam Lake while out dog sledding. He said its throat had been ripped out, apparently by other wolves.

"I run dogs on Kam Lake all the time, and in light of what's recently developed, I'm starting to carry a weapon," said Warner.