Bear needs necessities of life
Monday Magazine, Feb 12, 2004

A baby black bear has been reported roaming the Highlands, and Carol Sonnex of Greater Victoria Animals’ Crusaders is trying to save the small, hungry animal before something happens to it. Last week, Sonnex says, the bear hitched a ride from Port Renfrew on the back of a garbage truck. “Someone saw it roll off the back [of the truck], but didn’t report it at the time,” she says. “It’s only about the size of a raccoon.”

Sonnex first heard about the bear on February 8, when some Highlands residents spotted it in a tree on their property. “They called a conservation officer, who offered to come and shoot it . . . but that wasn’t exactly what they had in mind,” she says. “There’s no need, in this day and age, for shooting to be the first option.”

Sonnex says Greater Victoria Animals’ Crusaders rarely deal with wild animals, but are always willing to help animals in distress. The problem is, the bear left the yard it was spotted in, and Sonnex needs help to locate it. “The neighbours are all looking out for it,” she says. The yard the bear was spotted in is close to the Hartland Landfill, so that’s where it’s likely to turn up, she says.

District conservation officer Peter Pauwels says conservation officers want to work with Sonnex and the public to catch the bear without harming it. He expects it will take awhile to find the animal, though. “We’re going to get a sighting about once every few days, if it goes the way I expect it to,” he says.

Once it’s located, Sonnex says, the bear will be taken to the North Island Wildlife Recovery Association, located in Errington, near Parksville. There, the animal will be treated and helped to return to the wild.

Robin Campbell, NIWRA founder and site manager, says the bear is likely quite ill—it’s unusual to hear of a raccoon-sized bear at this time of year, he says. “When the winter started, it should have weighed anywhere between 65 to 90 pounds—it’s just too small,” he says. If the bear arrives safely at NIWRA, Campbell says staff will isolate it, and do bloodwork and other tests to determine its health. The goal, he says, would be to rehabilitate the bear and release it after about a year, but he won’t know whether that’s possible until the bear has had a check-up.

“Sometimes their little systems are shrunk up so small that you can’t help them,” he says. “It sounds like that bear hasn’t had any nutrition at all . . . it would have lost its mother early. It’s an amazing story of survival, that it’s even alive.”

Greater Victoria Animals’ Crusaders can be reached at 474-5581. To contact a conservation officer, call 1-800-663-9453.

—Adrienne Mercer