Lets face it, we are overrun with bears. Yup we need to understand them.
That’s a silly answer coming from someone with a university degree.
We need to allow people to hunt the bears for meat. If we don’t, it wont be safe in PG. The people will become the bears food. That what I understand. Have a swell day.

Hmm? I wonder if educateing the people will stop the bears from breeding?? lol.

Maybe not breeding but please consider this

A logical and accepted theory has to do with the reproductive cycle of the black bear known as delayed implantation. After the mating in late spring and early summer, the female may be carrying up to five fertilized eggs but these will not implant until hibernation starts. How much weight the expectant mother has gained during the summer and fall months will determine how many of these fertilized eggs will implant and begin to grow. If a female bears’ diet has been supplemented with attractants such as garbage, birdseed, and apples her ability to give birth to larger litters is increased. By allowing bears to access to more than what is available naturally could be a contributing factor to the high incident reports here in Prince George because we are assisting with the bears reproduction and survival rates.

I say we transplant them to where they have become extinct but loved and marvelled, and overrun with an abundance of potential food, Vancouver and area.

No matter how much ‘education’ you do, there will always be a segment of the population that leaves their garbage out and not care if bears get into it.

I only use my garbage container for non-food garbage. At work I have access to a bin so all our kitchen garbage goes in the back of the truck and into town when we have it. With the newly introduced MMBC recycling containers now my containers only hit the curb every second week.

That said, we still have a bear that cruises through every few days on what seems to be a route and recognizes the city’s garbage can and will knock it over dven if empty – won’t touch the other 3 or 4 containers parked right beside it that are very similar in appearance we use for bottles, cans, etc (glass and certain plastic MMBC requires you to take to the depot and bottles/cans with deposits). I think they can read the words “City of Prince George” embossed on the front because that is the only can they seem to knock over and then leave empty handed (probably wander around in the dark for a while before leaving).
My garage is full of stealables if left outside so the cans are lined up in a row and they only pick on the one can. A bear flung it into my truck once because it was wedged between two other cans it didn’t want to bother with so I now have a new parking space in the driveway to keep the dents down.

“We need to allow people to hunt the bears for meat.”

We already do. They’re good eating.

Just not the garbage bears. Not so good eating.

Furtree, it would be nice if we could.
Seems 20 years ago the hugabear, hugatree, latte sucker crowd in the LMD didn’t want any bear hunting whatsoever, but they don’t realize we’re overrun with them, easiest thing in the bush to shoot these days because the population around here has just exploded.
There are those around us who find it inconvenient to bear proof their yards and have absolutely no understanding of bear behaviour, how generations will follow the same paths their fore bearers did.
We cannot relocate a bear once it’s in garbage and then people get all upset when they’re shot.
What’s the answer? Until people start getting penalized for leaving stuff out, they’ll keep coming. Very lucky we haven’t had folks hurt by them here yet.

Would like to take this opportunity to provide some further insight.
Lifespan up to 25 years
Sexually mature between 3 and 5 years, 3 years when food is plentiful
Females breed every second year, mortality rates of wild newborn cubs in their first year is 50%, for bears in urban environments it could be as low as 45%
Colour vision although nearsighted.
Sense of smell 7 times greater than a bloodhounds.
A food source location is never forgotten.
Cognitive counting abilities found in some bears,they can count.
Some bears have been seen using “tools” to complete tasks.
There are many bears in Prince George because food sources are plentiful and are easy to access. An average bird feeder contains 1200 calories and can be consumed in minutes, that is 6 to 8 hours of feeding on berries in a field.
We have bears because we invite them.

I didn’t know that bears came from bird seed, I thought they breed and multiply.

Check out the garbage can that is put out at the curb on Princeton Cres a week before pickup!

Time and time and time again, we are reminded to store our garbage in our garages or sheds!

Time and time and time again, we are reminded not to put our garbage out at the curb the night before pickup!

Sadly, in spite of all of the pleas and reminders, far too many idiots completely ignore our bear situation.

Here in the Hart, one doesn’t have to look very far to see residents storing their garbage cans outside, beside rather than inside their garage or shed. An evening walk the night before scheduled garbage pickup will reveal numerous residents who think that putting their garbage out at the curb the night before pickup, is a good idea!

It’s time that Bylaw Officers started driving around giving out tickets. They would be extremely busy until people finally clue in! Unfortunately, the Bylaw Department is more worried about upsetting people than they are about enforcing bylaws!

Collect fines, save bears, keep my tax increases to a minimum! It’s a win-win as far as I’m concerned!

Just call those rcmp..they like to shoot the unarmed…perfect!

So Hart guy, I go to work at midnight don’t get home till noon!who puts my garbage out at 10 in the morning for garbage pickup!

Funny how it is the people who leave out the most attractants to bears and who display the absolutely ‘could care less’ attitudes are the ones who get the most upset when the bears have to be put down.
I’ve seen it first hand many times.

Hart Guy just because you see a garbage container out does not necessarily mean they are storing their garbage in it, our container sits outside, then on garbage pick up day we remove the frozen garbage from our old freezer and deposit it into the container for pickup, we freeze our garbage year round.

furtree, it’s great that you store your garbage in your freezer until garbage day. but seriously, do you really believe that everyone else does??

and jonnypg, are we to believe that everyone else goes to work at midnight and doesn’t get home till noon?

The two of you are likely the exception rather than the rule! However, rather than dealing with the issue, some would rather direct attention from it and make excuses for everyone! That seems to be the normal thing to do nowadays, doesn’t it!! Perhaps that’s why we continue to have bear issues.

13 bears put down between September 01 and October 21st! 45 so far this year!! These are pretty pathetic numbers! I’m sure that the 45 bears that were put down couldn’t care less about our excuses!

Just imagine the vocal outrage if 45 neighbourhood pets were put down because they got into our garbage!!