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By Nathan Jordan

Bear Awareness

Prince George Residents Chased by Black Bear While Searching for Lost Keys

Oct 19, 2022 | 5:30 PM

PRINCE GEORGE- As the seasons change so to do the habits of the local wildlife, and this year is no different. Hyperphagia, otherwise known as the fall feeding frenzy, happens every year. It’s the time when bears saunter out of their dens to scout out the best salmon runs, and fatten up on fish and berries for the long winter hibernation… at least, thats what they’re supposed to be eating…

In urban centers like Prince George, a city built in the middle a vibrant zone of biodiversity, black bears are finding themselves tempted by the easy pickings of garbage bins and low hanging fruit trees in residential gardens and public parks. That’s an overlap of habitat that can set the stage for some awkward encounters betweens bears and people, as Prince George local Keith Flemming and his neighbour Jenny Yost, found out first hand.

“My neighbour actually lost her house keys, so we were walking up and down 22nd Ave to see if we could find them. It started to get dark, so I told her we should probably go back because there’s been a couple bears that have been wandering around and she had her two little dogs with her… It seems as soon as I said that, a big black bear come down from the hill here, saw us and started charging us. We ran across the street into my friends garage for safety, and yeah it was pretty scary, he was probably only about 2 feet away from me. If it wasn’t for those guys that we’re working on the corner apartment building yelling out ‘BEAR!’ I think we would have been in trouble… cuz we didn’t see him coming” – Keith Flemming, Chased by Black Bear

That Incident happed Sunday evening, near the Ginter’s Meadow trail connection at the end of 22nd Ave. Keith, his neighbour Jenny, and both dogs, all escaped without injury. As for the bear, Conservation Officer Sgt Eamon McAuthur of the Prince George Conservation Office says aggressive encounters like these are as stressful for the animals as they are for the people involved, and offers a warning that opportunistic scavengers like black bears, can’t really tell the difference between dogs and wolves .

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“A dog to a bear is essential a wolf, they can’t differentiate between the two. So if you’ve got a mother with cubs, in a place like an off-leash dog park, the bear is going to try to protect the cubs from what it deems to be wolves” – Sgt. Eamon McAuther, Prince George Conservation Officer