INUVIK
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) and Inuvik RCMP officers shot and killed a young male grizzly bear in town June 8.

Staff at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources have been busy fielding calls about bears spotted around Inuvik over the last two weeks. A young grizzly was shot and killed in town on June 8. This large brown-coloured black bear was seen not far out of town on June 5. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

Department staff have been kept relatively busy in recent weeks fielding complaints about bears venturing close to the community.

That day, officers from both the ENR and RCMP were kept hopping during the morning as complaints came in about a bear on the prowl on Bompas and Wolverine roads. That bear was eventually shot and killed later in the day.

The bear had been raiding garbage boxes during the early morning hours, leaving a mess behind for homeowners around the vicinity of the old jail on Wolverine Road.

Further along, two homeowners were busy cleaning up some garbage left by the bear, which had knocked over their homemade wooden garbage bin.

They said they hadn't seen the bear, but weren't terribly surprised by its presence.

While much of the town is served by properly-designed bear-proof dumpsters, these locations on the fringes of town are not. There is bush in both locations. The homes are in close proximity to the Inuvik Ski Club trails, which border on heavy forest.

What's believed to be the same animal was spotted later that morning at the Inuvik Construction property on Willow Road.

That was at approximately 10:30 a.m., and it was easy to establish the bear was still present on the site because construction workers were standing on every available hiding spot that got them off the ground, including a pile of lumber.

Paul Petrin, the manager at Inuvik Construction, told Inuvik Drum his employees were working as normal when the bear was spotted sauntering up a trail that parallels Willow Road.

There is another trail directly linking that location to Wolverine Road and it's likely it was the same bear that had been a nuisance there.

Petrin described the bear as a small grizzly, perhaps two years old, with a very blond coat.

"My guys just scattered," he said.

The RCMP and ENR were called to the scene quickly. One of the Mounties was armed with a shotgun for protection. They had just begun to search the corner of the property where the bear was seen when it made a fleeting appearance at the other side, perhaps 100 metres away.

The bear, likely spooked by all the activity, raced away into the wooded area bordering on Muskrat Road, and wasn't seen again until later in the day.

Initially, Judy McLinton, the communications manager for the ENR, said the Inuvik office had received three complaints about the bear.

"At 11:35 pm (there was a) small grizzly sighted on Centennial Road near the Bypass Road. At 6:43 am (there was a) small grizzly eating from garbage bin on Bompas. At 8:45 a.m. (a) small grizzly heading north on Willow Road," she stated in an e-mail.

Local ENR officials aren't allowed to speak to the media without permission.

On June 12, after word was circulating around town the bear had been killed, McLinton issued an update.

"At 4:45 p.m., a bear was reported crossing the Marine Bypass Road heading east towards Wolverine Road. Renewable Resources Officers Lila Voudrach and Kevin Allen attended. Several residents spotted the bear on the side of Wolverine Road.

"The bear attempted to cross the road in several locations. It was deterred several times, kept on returning to the brush and kept heading south. The bear was then spotted on the corner of Centennial and Wolverine roads. RCMP deterred it twice and the third time shot the grizzly bear in the midsection. The bear did not go down and went into the brush. RROs gave chase and dispatched the wounded bear approximately (75 metres) into the brush."

McLinton described the grizzly as a "male sub-adult, very lean and not very fearful. It had been into several garbage bins in area."

Generally, bear carcasses of animals shot by RRO or RCMP officer are given to the Gwich'in Renewable Resources Board.

However, in the case of the grizzly shot on June 8, only the hide was turned over because the meat was not fit for human consumption, according to McLinton.

It's not that unusual for bears to wander into Inuvik, and several have been shot in recent years.

The number of bear calls seem to be the same as previous years, said McLinton.

A week earlier, ENR and RCMP officers were called to drive off what was described as a "large grizzly" on Tuma Street at about 2 a.m.

That bear was apparently shepherded off toward Old Baldy and the municipal waste-disposal site.

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