Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 27/99) - The bear encounters continue.

A Yellowknife pair went through some tense moments earlier this month when they awoke -- while dozing on a picnic trip -- to find a 250-pound black bear had joined them on their nature get-away.

Jesse Burry and Daniel O'Neil took an afternoon trip to Madeline Lake, Aug. 8, where they walked along the western shore and found a rocky point to settle down for a couple of hours.

"It was a cool day and we had been there a couple of hours," Burry said.

"We were facing the woods the whole time and then we turned towards the water. Within five minutes my friend, Dan, turned to me and said, 'holy smoke, don't move.'"

"I turned my head to the left and there was a 250-pound bear there, sniffing around us from two feet away."

The pair sat frozen for about a half-hour while the young bear milled about the rock they were sitting on.

"It was kind of just circling around us," Burry said.

"After about a half an hour, the bear went back down the trail we walked down and Dan said that we should slowly walk down to the water in case the bear came back.

"After a while, we decided to try and get out of there, so Dan picked up a pole off the ground and broke it in half. He beat the cooler with it as we walked out back to the highway. I heard something in the bushes but eventually we escaped."

According to Gerd Fricke, manager of RWED's wildlife and parks, walking slowly away from a bear that is in close proximity is the proper thing to do to avoid alarming the animal.

"The consensus is, if at all possible, to remain calm and move slowly away from the animal," Fricke said.

"Don't look directly towards its face, but try and keep an eye on the animal. Once you're between 50 to 100 feet away, you can assess the situation.

"If it is an independent cub or adult and you are far away from the animal, make some loud noises to see if he will scare away or not. If the bear doesn't get scared away, that means that the bear is used to humans and is not afraid so you should still try and just slowly back away. The same for a female with cubs.

"The worst thing that you can do is startle the animal at close distances."

Fricke reminds people that all incidents involving bear encounters in close proximity to town should be reported to RWED.