HomeMy WebLinkAboutGoderich Signal Star, 2017-02-01, Page 22 Signal Star • Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Shaun Gregory
Huron County animal control officer, Bob Trick answers questions for the media about bears last
week, just outside the Goderich Council chambers.
Bear encounter tips
• Stop. Don't panic. Stay calm.
•Don't corner a bear: make sure it h s a clear escape route.
• Always watch the bear and slowly back away until it's out of sight.
• If you're near a building or vehicle, get inside.
• Leave the area if you're berry -picking; hiking, camping, jogging or cycling.
•If you're with others, stay together and act as a group.
• If the bear does not get closer to you, slowly back away, talk-
ing to the bear in a quiet, monotone voice.
• Do not scream, turn your back on the bear, run, kneel down,
make direct eye contact, climb a tree, try to swim away.
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Huron County: Rise in
bear sightings could
give our region paws
Shaun Gregory, Randy
Richmond
Postmedia Network
Bears aren't coming to
Southwestern Ontario just
for a dine and dash
anymore.
Instead, they appear to
be settling in for longer.
But have no fear — the
black bears aren't going to
invade in large numbers.
Huron County, north of
London, has experienced
its most bear sightings in
decades — and those
suggest the bears are
wintering in the region,
the county's animal con-
trol officer, Bob Trick,
says.
It's worth nothing the
bears will wake up hungry
in the spring, he said.
"We have to prepare
ourselves to have bears
hibernating every year,"
said Trick, who alerted
Goderich town council to
the issue days ago.
In 2014, there were
about 15 bear sightings in
Huron County, he said.
In 2015 there were few,
but in 2016 Trick received
30 reports of bears,
including some with vid-
eos and photographs.
He began investigating
in October, and near the
trail of the Maitland River
Valley found three piles of
bear scat, with berries,
that backed up claims of
sightings.
The late sighting sug-
gests the bear was going to
spend the winter in the
area, Trick said.
"Other years, we figure
they came and went back
north."
ii
We have to prepare
ourselves to have
bears hibernating
every year," said
Huron County
animal control
officer, Bob Trick,
who alerted
Goderich town
council to the
issue days ago.
Trick noted that bears
had been sighted, and
unfortunately struck and
killed by vehicles near
Strathroy and in Welling-
ton County.
Bears were also spotted
near Strathroy and in
Lambton, Wellington and
Middlesex counties in the
summer of 2016.
The last bear sighting in
London was in April2010,
when police shot and
killed one that had wan-
dered into west London,
just south of Oxford Street,
behind the Child Parent
Resource Institute (CPRI)
on Sanitorium Road.
Bears need a Large food
source in late summer and
fall to put on weight and
hibernate for the winter,
and dry conditions farther
north might have reduced
the berry supply this year,
Trick said.
That's something home-
owners handling food and
garbage outside might
have to keep more in mind
if bears start to hang
around.
"If you have food, they
will be there," he said.
But there's little chance
of a bear invasion into
southern regions of
Ontario, said Ministry of
Natural Resources spokes-
person Jolanta Kowalski.
The province has plenty
of advice for humans deal-
ing with bears and notes
on a website:
"Bears usually avoid
humans. But they are
attracted into urban and
rural areas to get food.
They will topple bird feed-
ers, ransack barbecues,
raid garbage cans and
even try to enter build-
ings. If they learn that they
can find food where peo-
ple live, bears will return
again and again."
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