WESTLOCK — In the past two weeks, Westlock County residents have been spotting black bears near their homes and sharing the images more frequently on social media.
A black bear’s presence in this area, however, is not at all unusual, says Westlock County emergency services manager John Biro.
“They’re actually quite common, but there has been a spike in them. I know they’re definitely seen more out in the farmlands, just being spotted a lot more. I've even seen them around Thorhild along Highway 18, right beside a farmstead,” Biro said.
“They’ve been spotted around Lamont, they’ve had issues around Lamont County actually, with black bears killing cattle or livestock. For some reason, there seems to be more black bears around for sure.”
According to the provincial government too, black bears have been extending their range in the last four decades, and can now be found in 75 per cent of the province. It's only areas southeast of Edmonton and the Rocky Mountains, where vegetation is sparse and the land is dry, that haven’t been populated.
Bear densities in areas like Banff are also pretty low — that would be grizzly bear territory, although Biro says a couple have been spotted here too.
The average range of a female black bear in excellent habitat is about 20-square kilometres, Alberta Environment and Parks says. In the 1970s, researchers noticed that with poor conditions, the range increases — the study was done in Swan Hills during a time of active oil and gas exploration and known bear shootings.
Increased ranges also indicate low densities of black bears. More sightings aren’t necessarily an indication of tipping densities of black bears, but there are other reasons why they might be more visible.
One of them is the loss of forested land, Biro says. Fewer trees, obviously, means less cover for the roaming bears, who tend to be in search of bodies of water like rivers and creeks.
“You go into Athabasca County, Thorhild County, Westlock County is bad. The constant forest that’s being knocked down, obviously they’re losing their habitat so they’re looking for small, forested areas or patches where they can seek cover,” Biro said.
“There’s been a lot of forest knocked down and now with the open fields, they’re a lot more noticeable than hidden in a bush. They're just moving from one location to the next.”
There's also a correlation between highway accident and lack of tree barriers along the highway.
Plus, Biro says, “they’re scared of humans more than the opposite.”
"They’re moving into more populated areas where there’s going to be more human contact, as well as they’ll start scrounging around for food and end up in somebody’s property if they’ve got garbage laying around or animal carcasses.”
In encounters with bears, common knowledge is to play dead, but that doesn’t work on black bears, who don’t care about the state of their food. Most times, standing still and not approaching means you can “enjoy the moment,” instruction manuals say, then move away quietly in the opposite direction.
If you get noticed and the bear thinks you’re interesting, shout and use bear spray. If that doesn’t work, well... The best bet, Biro says, is to fight back — a tall task for everybody but Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant (shot in Bow Valley).
“If they don’t tend to go in the opposite direction and they tend to follow you, they’re in that predatorial state, that’s when things can get dangerous because they’re after you,” Biro said.
Overall though, sighting black bears is nothing to worry about: “It would be very rare (to get attacked by a bear).” Although it might be a sign that better care is needed of the environment, and better forests would make for happier animals.
As of a 1993 estimate, there are about 36,000 bears on provincial lands and 40,000 in all of Alberta.
