Tag Archives: Black Bears on Vancouver Island

Animals

The First Wildlife Coexistence program on Vancouver Island

Around 40 people turned out for the Wildlife Coexistence Gathering on Cortes Island. This was an opportunity for Cortesians to meet some of the extended community of advisors  to the local program and learn more about our three top predators: grey wolf, black bear and cougar. The gathering was organized and hosted by Sabina Leader Mense and Georgina Silby from the Cortes Community Wolf Project. It began with a welcoming ceremony in the Klahoose All Purpose Building on Friday, April 5. There was an all day teaching series in the Linnaea Education Centre the following day. The gathering ended with a walk through the wildlife travel corridor in Hank’s Beach Forest Conservation Park on Sunday, April 7.  

Sabina Leader Mense emailed, “We celebrated our cultural relationships to our wild kin with the Klahoose First Nations singers & drummers and our guests Grace SoftDeer from the Chickasaw First Nation and Dennis Hetu from the Toquaht First Nation. We then explored our social and ecological relationships with our wild kin in formal and informal presentations by our invited guests, Bob Hansen, Pacific Rim Coordinator for WildSafeBC and Todd Windle, Coordinator for the Wild About Wolves Project.

Cortes Currents recorded most of the sessions at Linnaea and has arranged the material in a series of articles. This is an abridged version of the segment in which Bob Hansen talked about the origins of Vancouver Island’s first wildlife coexistence program. Years later it became the model for Cortes Island’s program, and Hansen was one of Sabina Leader Mense’s mentors.

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Animals

Much more than an ‘Electric Fencing Workshop’ on Cortes Island

Bob Hansen’s Electric Fencing Workshop was delightful. The ‘talk’ he gave at Linnaea Farm, on February 3, was the first of FOCI’s new ‘Create, Connect and Conserve’ event series. It was permeated by stories of animal behaviour as well as visual aids.

“I’ve been involved in 50 plus electric fencing projects in our region over the last six years. Wherever electric fences have gone in, the conflicts were resolved,” Hansen explained.  

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Animals

Human behaviour needs to shift for coexistence with wildlife, say specialists

By Alexandra Mehl, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Vancouver Island, BC – Vancouver Island is known for its predatory wildlife, such as black bears, coastal wolves and cougars, that roam the rugged coastline. Amidst the coast many towns and villages sit in areas with high populations of predatory wildlife, making interactions with humans often inevitable, unless effective coexistence management is in place.

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Animals

 A North Island situation: solutions for Campbell River’s Bear problem

Campbell River’s bear problem is escalating. There were twice as many reports of bears raiding garbage cans this year. Sergeant Mike Newton, a Conservation Officer with the Ministry of Environment, went to the June 27 city council meeting with a couple of suggestions.

They both hinge upon changing human behaviour.

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Animals

Conservationists urge B.C. to protect bear dens ‘before it’s too late’

Click here for ‘The need to protect Black Bear dens on Vancouver Island‘

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The photo of a baby black bear scrabbling around the woody debris of its destroyed den is certainly heart-rending, conservation biologist Tony Hamilton says.

The former large carnivore specialist with B.C.’s Environment Ministry recalls being called to attend the incident, despite it occurring more than a decade ago. 

A mother and her cub were displaced from their nest in a huge, old stump that had been destroyed during logging operations in a second-growth forest on Vancouver Island near Campbell River.   

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