Two grizzly bears that had been habituated to using the Jasper townsite have been captured and relocated to a remote part of Jasper National Park.

The three-year-old siblings, which were “skinny and food-stressed,” according to Parks Canada human-wildlife conflict specialist Steve Malcolm, were captured in a bear trap on the night of Tuesday, May 31. 

“They walked into the traps like I’ve never seen before,” Malcolm said. 

The two bears were malnourished; they only weighed 95 and 120 pounds, respectively, Malcolm said. Their increasingly-bold use of the townsite was heightening the risk to human safety to a degree that officials were not comfortable with.

“When they’re food-conditioned and food-stressed, just like a dog, once they’re hungry enough they might want to bite the hand that feeds them,” Malcolm said.

The grizzlies had been spotted in town numerous times—eating grass on residents’ lawns on a busy street; looking for food in backyards; garbage picking behind the 7-11 convenience store on Connaught Drive; and browsing for foliage near the elementary school.

“They were getting within 10 feet of people on the street,” Malcolm said.

To capture them, officials set two traps with “low-smell” bait (beavers carcasses) in a greenspace behind Bonhomme Street where the bears had been active all week. After the trap was tripped, the bears were tranquilized, collared and transported by truck and trailer to the Columbia Icefields Area. From there the traps were flown to Isaac Creek in the remote Brazeau country, near the border of JNP and the province of Alberta, not far from Jasper’s south boundary trail.

Once released, the bears ran out of the traps into their new, natural habitat—albeit with a couple of nutritional boosts to get them started.

“We left them a couple beavers to help put some pounds on,” Malcolm said.

Malcolm said by removing these bears from unnatural food sources and high human-use areas, his team is giving these bears the best chance at survival. However, while the Brazeau has a low-density grizzly population, JNP wildlife officials know there are big male grizzlies in the area that won’t take kindly to a couple of newcomers.

“There are a couple of six-to-eight-hundred pound boars that roam that part of the park,” Malcolm said. 

Malcolm said there is always the chance the bears will attempt to come back to town. Bears are individualistic; depending on their personality and what they run into, they could either make the Brazeau their new home, make it back to the Jasper townsite area or not make it at all. 

“With the amount of snow we have I can’t see them moving too fast, but I wouldn’t be totally shocked if they showed up in the same place we trapped them,” he said.

At last count, there were 135 grizzly bears in Jasper National Park. There are approximately 230 black bears.

Even though the siblings are far away from the townsite for now, Malcolm and JNP resource conservation staff still have their hands full with bears. There are three other young grizzlies (four-year-olds) which have been spotted on the perimeter of town—near Alpine Village, on the golf course and recently at Pine Bungalows. The “three amigos,” as they’re dubbed, are three of about a dozen grizzlies that have been reported in JNP’s high-use areas. 

That’s on top of the elk calving activity, which has required about three calf-relocations per day. Officials often move a calf when a mother elk gives birth in a high-use area, such as a campground or residential neighbourhood. Mother elk can be extremely dangerous to humans as they protect their young; the helpless fawns also attract predators.

Residents and visitors can help make it easier on wildlife and Parks Canada staff by understanding that because there is still so much snow in the alpine and subalpine, the area around the valley bottom—and therefore the community—is very active with wildlife. Grass, dandelions and the aforementioned elk calves offer good nutritional value for predators; the food rewards outweigh the risks of human conflict for many of these animals, Malcolm said.

As a reminder, Parks Canada requires dogs always be on-leash, small children should always be kept in view and people recreating in the wilderness should always be aware of their surroundings. Keep bear spray handy and travel in groups. If you do have an encounter or see a carcass, report it to Jasper Dispatch, 780-852-6155.

“These are wild animals,” Malcolm said. “There’s an element of unpredictability.”

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com