A mother bear and a cub were put down before New Year’s in the Waynes Road area of Chemainus after constantly accessing a garbage source.
Another cub that had been spotted in the area previously could not be located when conservation officers returned to the site and they presume it may have gone off to hibernate.
Here’s the bear necessities from conservation personnel: people need to lock up their garbage so bears will not keep returning and will eventually move on.
“I hate putting animals down,” said Stuart Bates, a conservation officer in Nanaimo.
But he said the options for relocation are limited the longer bears have been in an area where garbage is available.
George Gibson, a resident in the area, said the two bears were tranquilized Dec. 29 and taken away. Conservation officers returned Jan. 2 looking for the other cub, “but the last one ran away,” said Gibson.
Bates pointed out the three bears had actually been located initially in a tree.