Boo busts out, dodging unkind cut
Escape 'like breaking out of Fort Knox'
After his second escape in two weeks, Boo the grizzly bear has been spotted cavorting with a girlfriend in the Purcells. Conservation officers may rethink their plans to neuter him.

After his second escape in two weeks, Boo the grizzly bear has been spotted cavorting with a girlfriend in the Purcells. Conservation officers may rethink their plans to neuter him.
Photograph by : The Canadian Press file

Stuart Hunter, The Province; with News Services
Published: Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Grizzly love knows no bounds.

Boo, the fugitive bear, was spotted by searchers yesterday, nuzzling with a female grizzly in an alder patch high in the Purcell Mountains.

It was Boo's second escape in two weeks from his man-made den at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort near Golden, and spokesman Michael Dalzell says the Boo-dini act could be powered by love or at least lust -- it's prime mating season.

"His [Sunday morning] escape was quite a feat because we thought where he was was impenetrable -- it's like breaking out of Fort Knox," Dalzell said. "We spotted him about six kilometres north of the resort and he is not alone, he is with a female grizzly. Is it love? Maybe. Who knows?"

Just a day after his recapture following his first escape, which began when he dug under a fence in pursuit of a sow, Boo busted through a 180-kilogram steel door and two electric steel fences and then over a 3.6-metre fence reinforced with 60 centimetres of underground steel.

"He was quite determined," Dalzell said. "It's hard to speculate why but I think you can put two and two together -- he was with a female grizzly."

After his first recapture, Boo faced the grisly prospect of being neutered but that has been put on paws while conservation officers and resort staff monitor Boo's behaviour and look at options that won't b-ruin his future fatherhood.

Dalzell said Boo could be tranquilized and returned to his nine-hectare enclosure, neutered, or left in the wild to see if he is smarter than the average bear and can return to the wild. A decision is expected by the end of the week.

"We have already met with local conservation officers as well as the Ministry of the Environment [and Parks Canada officials] and we've got about five or six options," he said.

"The two priority concerns are public safety and the safety of the bear."

Boo was orphaned as a cub when his mother was illegally shot by a hunter in 2002.

shunter@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2006