Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jul 22/98) - Two black bears who wandered into the city on the weekend got free rides out of town, courtesy of Renewable Resources staff.

"On Friday we got a call from the Beck dog compound that there was a bear up there," recalled regional biologist Dean Cluff. The Beck kennel is in the Kam Lake industrial park.

"We went up and scared it away. But it must have gone up past the TelSat station, because Sunday afternoon we got another call. We went up and fired some bear bangers and scared it off again."

Cluff and senior wildlife officer Raymond Bourget got another call on the same bear Sunday at midnight. It was caught in a live capture trap the biologists had set at the Beck property.

After sedating it, they ear-tagged the bear and tattooed an identity number on it.

They loaded the trap and 70-kilogram, two-year-old male bear into a truck and headed down Highway 3.

"That's what made it such a long night," said Cluff. "We were driving 40 kilometres and hour there."

They relocated the bear south of the Frank Channel, then headed back to town, arriving at 6:30 a.m.

As soon as they returned, they discovered another two-year-old male was caught in a trap set at the dump.

They processed that bear and also released it in another location off Highway 3.

A white numbered ear tag was clipped onto one ear of each bear. In the other ear, the biologists attached a five-inch orange plastic streamer.

Cluff said two fox traps have been set at the legislative assembly, as well. The traps were set on the weekend, following a report of a little black dog fleeing from an aggressive fox.