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Bear Update: Jeanie at staff housing

Black Bear Researcher Rain hammers at the dark streets surrounding Blackcomb staff housing. It’s warm – unusually warm for mid-November. Fog cloaks the dim street lights. Few people are seen but voices echo everywhere.

Black Bear Researcher

Rain hammers at the dark streets surrounding Blackcomb staff housing. It’s warm – unusually warm for mid-November. Fog cloaks the dim street lights. Few people are seen but voices echo everywhere. I sit in my truck with the driver’s window down. Rainwater has soaked my elbow, half the steering wheel and is filling the inside door panel. People nod or say "hey" as they walk by to dump their garbage into the compactor. It’s been dark since 5 p.m. The rain is steady.

I get out of the truck and check the two cylinders of bear spray. You can’t really tell they are cans of bear spray because they are covered with a generous layer of peanut butter (crunchy). The peanut butter is courtesy of Andrew at staff housing. The two cans are wedged between two bars at the front of the compactor. The area is shadowed from the street light. I return to the truck still smelling the peanut butter.

Finally, 15 minutes go by without anyone dumping garbage at the compactor. At 6:45 p.m., as if on queue, a 105-kg adult female black bear appears from the bottom end of the compactor. Jeanie stands squarely with her head lowered to the wet asphalt. Her large black nose sways back and forth. Like a detective arriving at a crime scene, she interrogates the "food finds" of the evening. Odorous ground rebounds with footprints and spilt garbage contents of a world Whistler bears know too frequently.

Jeanie is an 11-year old (minimum age) resident female to Whistler Mountain. She is brown with a large flared white chest V and is accompanied by two, 11-month old cubs (born January 2002) which are not easily seen as she restricts them to secure tree cover. As Jeanie spends all spring through fall feeding and sleeping on Whistler Mountain, the base of Whistler-Blackcomb is her alternative food source when ski area berries are depleted during late fall.

I sit still, and out of sight switch the digital video recorder on. Jeanie takes a step, stops, and gives a robust shake propelling rainwater from her guard hairs. Immediately she checks the exact location of two blue plastic non-bear proof containers of recycling – the easiest targets. Spilling these containers with one stroke of her forepaw reveals plastic jugs coated with the smells of curdling milk and sticky juice residues. She typically knocks over these containers, allowing easy pickings for her cubs. A feeding strategy no different than splitting open a rotten log and leaving the scattering carpenter ants for her eager cubs.

But the containers are no longer there, thanks to a phone call made to Allana Hamm, Whistler-Blackcomb’s environmental co-ordinator. Instead, Jeanie walks around the larger recycling igloos where various paper products are stored. She rears briefly thrusting her nose toward the openings but little is there to hold her interest and the small opening makes it difficult to paw at anything inside.

Next, she approaches the compactor door. During my nine years studying Whistler bears, I have witnessed them opening all types of dumpster lids and compactor latches but tonight, and again thanks to Allana requesting that Carney’s provide a bear proof latch (so far), Jeanie cannot open the door. It would be great to see these chain/karabiner latches on all garbage compactors in Whistler. Such a simple device goes a long way in preventing the beginnings of bear visitation at dumpsters and compactors.

After defeat with the latch, Jeanie lowers to all fours and sits squarely in front of the compactor door. She looks around then back at the door and rears. Bears don’t give up that easy. Her forepaws land on the latch. She tries again, pushing and pulling the compactor handle. She pays no attention to the karabiner and chain locking the handle in place. What she knows from past experience is that pushing/pulling the handle will open the compactor door.

She drops again to all fours, swings her head and thrusts her nose into the wet night air – peanut butter. Right on track. She walks around the corner into the shadows of the compactor. Without hesitation she begins licking the peanut butter off the cans. Footsteps on gravel halt her find, as she turns to watch two people walk past on Glacier Drive. Quiet again. She resumes licking the cans. Licking stops… time to bite. She wants more and to take it away. She pulls back on one can. Penetrating canines release a hiss from the stressed can of bear spray. Jeanie jolts her head to the side and back from the can. Walking back to the nearest tree cover I can hear her exhaling attempts through chomping jaws to rid her mouth of the unpleasant spray.

Probably one of the most effective uses of Capsicum pepper spray, the "peanut butter" surprise can be a very effective deterrent. Coated with peanut butter, or sometimes honey, pressurized spray can be released directly into the bear’s mouth, giving them a nasty experience when actively consuming human food.

However, the experience deters her only temporarily. Given the fact that most black bears in Whistler, especially sub-adult and female individuals, are human-habituated, deterrent tactics yield only short-term success – but they remain an effective tool to alleviate pressures of destroying bears. Most bears I have followed after being deterred by yelling, human-charging, vehicle-charging, and hazing by RCMP retreat to secure cover 50-350 metres away, often returning in as little as an hour or diverting to foraging elsewhere but under similar circumstances (close to people).

Many variables dictate how a bear responds to deterrent action. In Jeanie’s case she has spent the last month close to people awaiting seasonal weather to push her into her denning area. Why she doesn’t remain close to her den is because her biological drive as a bear forces her to at least be close to potential food sources (if not natural then man-made). Many mother bears will "go through the motions" of searching for food ending in little success but simply bedding down and waiting for den entrance.

As I write this column many bears, including Jeanie and her cubs, remain active throughout Whistler. If you should experience bear activity the best reaction is no threatening reaction. If you meet a bear at night (when most are active close to people), talk in moderate tones and slowly retreat. Confirm your identity (by speaking) and location (sound of voice), give the bear room and you should not have a problem. I would recommend not trying to deter them.

Once a bear leaves, if you can secure or clean up the attractant it goes a long way toward preventing potential conflicts. The most useful complaints I think, are ones reporting inappropriately stored garbage.

If you would like to help out with your experiences, early winter bear sightings can be reported to me at 604-902-1660 in Whistler and 604-898-2713 in Squamish, or by e-mail at mallen_coastbear@direct.ca . All information is used for scientific record only. Please note the date, time of day, and possible individual characteristics (body size, colour, chest markings, ear tags, presence of cubs, or behaviour).

Many thanks to all the people that have contributed with their bear experiences and Pique Newsmagazine for sponsorship of Bear Update columns.