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Two black bears killed in Inuvik in less than a month

Katie May
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, August 12, 2010

INUVIK - Two black bears were shot and killed in as many weeks after the animals made their way downtown to the local youth centre on July 30 and then behind the Inuvik Drum office Wednesday morning.

A resident called Inuvik RCMP around 3:30 a.m. July 30, reporting a black bear sighting near the youth centre on Mackenzie Road. When Kevin Allen, a renewable resources officer with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, arrived along with two police officers, the six-foot-long adult male black bear had already squeezed past the building's pilings and made his way underneath the youth centre. Allen made the decision to put the bear down.

"What it came down to was a public safety issue. It was brave enough to walk through town," he said, adding the bear had a full stomach and was just beginning to shed its fur for summer.

He donated the hide to a local Gwich'in beneficiary.

"When we skinned this bear out it was really healthy and I have no idea why it would walk through town," he said.

Inuvik is close to the border of the black bear's natural habitat. Over the past two years, reported black bear sightings around Inuvik have been low, Allen said, but this year he's already received a few calls about different bears. One grizzly had to be put down at the town dump - though none came as far into town as the ill-fated black bear.

Allen said he's had a couple of close run-ins with bears, including a grizzly in his driveway about five years ago, but he's not sure why there seems to be a higher incidence of bears close to town this summer.

"It's not unusual. I mean we do live in bear country, but for it to walk through town - that's right downtown," he said. "I have no idea which general direction it came from. It could have been walking across a utilidor from anywhere."

It may have something to do with the town's efforts to keep bears out of the landfill by keeping piles of garbage covered with dirt.

"The dump was probably recently capped and the garbage didn't suit his needs I guess, so he went elsewhere, that's a possibility," Allen said.

Taxi driver Amar Alawad was making his nightly rounds driving downtown when he caught sight of the bear by the youth centre. He was one of few at that hour to be drawn into the commotion as the bear was destroyed and then lifted into a pickup truck and taken away. He snapped some photos with his BlackBerry to document the sheer size of the animal's hide.

"It was a big one, definitely not a baby," he said, adding he was a bit surprised to see the bear lurking about, but he wasn't at all taken aback.

"That's the North," he shrugged.

Anyone who spots a bear roaming close to town should call ENR's local 24-hour emergency wildlife line at 678-0289.

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