A black bear. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Ian Gustafson

Be Bear Aware

PANP reporting healthy black bear population, chance of interaction possible

May 24, 2021 | 12:00 PM

As more people make their way out to the Prince Albert National Park (PANP) to be outdoors this season, they’re reminding the public to be careful when they cross paths with wildlife. More specifically, black bears, as the PANP are reporting a healthy black bear population.

Ken Kingdon, resource conservation manager for PANP, said the exact population number is unknown because of their mobility. Year to year, it can change due to food availability and success of reproduction.

“That’s why we use that euphemism that it’s a healthy population, there’s certainly no sense that it’s either increasing or decreasing significantly over the last three years,” Kingdon said.

Due to the population of bears, chances of human interaction are possible because they’ve come out of their dens and are accessing food in a variety of areas.

“It continues on through the first part of the summertime and generally things get fairly quiet towards the end of summer and into the fall, people see fewer and fewer of them,” Kingdon explained.

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To prevent attracting bears, Kingdon said people should keep a clean campsite, don’t feed any animals and keep your cooler in a safe place.

When you’re out walking on a trail and come across a bear there are some standard actions you can do to reduce the risk of being attacked. Some include travelling in groups, bears will be less likely of approaching a loud group with three or more members.

“A bear will hear you and move off because bears do not want to have an interaction with humans, they’re generally very afraid of humans,” Kingdon said.

He explained if you do cross paths with a bear to stop, give the bear some room, have a conversation with it so it knows you’re human, and make yourself look as big as possible.

“Standing as a group and making noise really does handle 99 per cent of any bear encounters you might have,” he said.

He does not know of any bear attacks that have happened in the PANP where people were hurt, but there are interactions every year. Some have resulted in nervous bears swatting at the ground.

“It’s certainly uncommon. In my 32 years with Parks Canada between Riding Mountain and here, I have never had a report of people being seriously injured by black bears,” Kingdon said. “You can imagine between those two parks, you have literally hundreds of thousands of people visiting those parks every year and so there’s a lot of people and there’s quite a few bears and just demonstrates the risk is super low.”

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Ian.gustafson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @iangustafson12