Living with Grizzly Bears in British Columbia
COHABITING WITH THE WILD 6/7. In British Columbia, Canada's westernmost province, residents are trying to find solutions to avoid the worst-case scenario: killing a grizzly bear. And electric fencing often proves to be the best deterrent.
As he cautiously steps into a yellowing aspen forest in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, Clayton Lamb parts the brush in search of a sturdy tree to attach his bear trap. Scent lures have been laid out to attract the animal—whose territory spans more than 1,000 square kilometers—to this precise spot outside the town of Fernie. Clayton's colleague, wildlife monitoring technician Laura Smit, sprinkles old ox blood from a red plastic jerry can into the woods. A human would find the smell appalling, but to a grizzly bear looking to build up fat reserves for winter, it's irresistible.
Clayton works for the University of British Columbia. With Laura Smit, they spent entire days crisscrossing this valley in the Canadian Rockies. Together, they chose strategic locations, placed scent lures, and checked the surveillance cameras to see if any traps had been triggered. The first night there, they didn't see a single bear. The following night, still nothing, but at 4:31 a.m., a camera detected movement. “We have a grizzly bear.” That was Clayton's almost immediate text message to La
Take advantage of the special digital offer to access all of our content without limits.
Courrier International
