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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A two-year-old male black bear was shot and killed by wildlife officers at the tennis courts off the McMahon Frame Lake Trail on Friday after the bear led officials on a two-hour chase.

A mother bear and her two cubs, plus one more cub not pictured, were crossing the Ingraham Trail just past the Prelude Lake East entrance on Sunday night. On Friday, August 5, a bear was shot by the tennis courts off of the McMahon Frame Lake Trail by wildlife officers. - photo courtesy of Brian Cole

Derek Tremblay, a security supervisor at the Legislative Assembly who saw the bear, was upset the bear was shot and didn't think it posed a risk to the public.

"I've seen the bear and it was running away from people," said Tremblay.

"There was people all outside of the building and it didn't attack anyone. They said they had to put it down for safety of the public -- why couldn't it have been relocated? It wasn't aggressive and it was a young one," said Tremblay.

Ian Ellsworth, senior wildlife officer at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said there was no other option but to shoot and kill the bear.

"In this case, there was just too many people around," said Ellsworth, adding there were children at a playground the bear ran through, more at the tennis courts and two girls who ran away from the bear and directed wildlife officers toward it.

The 140-pound bruin was first seen crossing the street from the Niven Lake area to Frame Lake at 2 p.m. It then was spotted by the legislative assembly but kept on moving, swimming Frame Lake to the McMahon Frame Lake Trail section located beside Gitzel Street. From there it crossed through the McNiven Beach park where kids were playing and arrived at the tennis courts. It was heading in the direction of Franklin Avenue and went up into the rocky outcrop between the tennis courts and Gitzel Street, where Department of Environment and Natural Resources wildlife officers shot and killed the bear at 4 p.m.

Ellesworth said it was a coordinated effort by two ENR officials on the ground, one in a helicopter and several RCMP officers. They waited until the bear was on the rocky outcrop and away from traffic and the public before shooting it with a shot gun so as not to put any members of the public at risk.

Ellesworth said a tranquilizer gun -- what they would use in the case of relocating a bear -- does not have an instant sleeping effect on bears, contrary to what some might think.

"Everybody thinks once you hit a bear with a tranquilizer gun it goes down, and that is not the case.

Some of them, even with the best-placed shot, can take five to ten minutes before the drug gets inducted in there bodies and they can go an enormous distance in five or ten minutes," said Ellesworth.

Ellesworth said it has been a relatively quiet year for bears coming into the city. This was the first bear shot within city limits this year and the second bear-sighting in the city, the first occurring two weeks ago behind Bison Apartments.

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