Friday, Jun 16, 2006
Runaway grizzly bear returns 'home'

(CBC) - Boo, the young male grizzly bear who escaped from his 22-acre enclosure at the Kicking Horse Grizzly Bear Refuge at a resort near Golden earlier this month, has been spotted - back at the resort.

Boo had dug his way under a a fence on June 5 after catching the scent of wild female bear.

Kicking Horse staff had been tracking the pair by helicopter, but say they lost sight of them several days ago.

They say he reappeared Thursday night at the resort, but they haven't caught him yet.

If he is caught, resort officials say they'll neuter Boo, so he would be less likely to try and escape again in search of a mate.

The RCMP had raised the concern that the bear might be a safety problem if he returned to the town, because he is habituated to human contact.

- Bear orphaned as a cub -

Boo was just seven months old when a hunter shot his mother along the Barkerville highway near Quesnel in northern B.C. in 2002. The hunter was later fined $9,000.

Boo and his brother were moved to the Grouse Mountain Wildlife Refuge on the Lower Mainland for care, before being moved to Golden.

Boo's brother died during hibernation at the refuge in 2004.
© the CBC, 2006