B.C. bear interactions with people skyrocketing, leading to more deaths

More than 150 black bears have been killed by BCCOS officers so far in 2023.

Negative interactions between bears and British Columbians have been skyrocketing in recent years.

The BC Conservation Officer Service (BCCOS) said calls regarding bears have gone up 100 per cent this past summer.

While officials said it’s a good sign that the bear population is doing well, these interactions are leading to a large number of bears being killed.

“When these bears get to a point that the food conditioning (and) the threat to the public is too high, we have to do our job and we will do our job,” Len Butler said, BC Conservation Officer Service’s deputy chief.

More than 150 black bears have been killed by BCCOS officers so far in 2023. In August, they got more than 6,000 black bear-related calls from across the province.

A B.C. non-profit charity, the Fur-Bearers, has said that access to garbage is too easy in human-dense areas. It tracked the deadliest communities for black bears in the province in 2022.

“Black bears are often killed when they begin accessing garbage and spend time in human-dense areas seeking unnatural food sources from unsecured attractants,” said Aaron Hofman, the Fur-Bearers’ director of advocacy and policy.

“By identifying communities where bears are killed with greater frequency, questions about systemic issues can be asked, and the killing can end.”