GLOBE AND MAIL/ JULY 1, 2006

Release Boo into the wild, experts urge

MATTHEW KWONG

VANCOUVER -- Wildlife experts are debating what to do with an escaped 280-kilogram grizzly bear who has shown them that love knows no bounds.

A list of prominent animal-rights advocates requested yesterday that the B.C. government step in to rehabilitate and release Boo, the orphaned grizzly bear who twice busted out of captivity after catching a scent of a wild sow.

Signatories led by Barb Murray of Bear Matters B.C. suggested that flying 4-year-old Boo to a remote northern wilderness away from humans might be the kindest solution to his constant calls for the wild.

"We're asking the government to intervene and take over 100 per cent, tranquillize Boo and get him out to the northern areas of B.C. somewhere away from people," she said. "It's amazing he's survived still, because even if he looked at a tourist wrong, he'd have been dead. Boo has really behaved himself."

Kicking Horse Ski Resort, where Boo was contained before he prematurely hit his sexual peak, had worried that the bear was so accustomed to humans that his life would be at risk in the wild. If brought back in again, Boo would likely have to be neutered.

"I'm horrified that if they catch him they want to bring him back and remove his critical body parts," Valhalla Wilderness Society bear biologist Wayne McCrory said. "As far as I'm concerned, the bear has demonstrated he doesn't want to be held captive and I hope that he just keeps travelling."

Helicopter crews yesterday reported spotting the bear about 15 kilometres northwest of the resort. This time he was in the company of a new mate.

"Boo's been getting around," Ms. Murray remarked. "He's already mated and spread his DNA around, so he's adding to the conservation benefit of the area."

After having been enticed by a wild female, Boo first broke free from his compound on June 5 and was brought back after 19 days on the run.

But locked steel enclosures and four-metre-high electric fences couldn't contain Boo's need for a close encounter of the furry kind. Less than two days later, he was on the lam again.

"He is definitely an intelligent and determined bear," regional parks manager Wayne Stetski said. "Springtime is the season of love, and even for bears, I guess."

Michael Dalzell, a spokesman for Kicking Horse sanctuary, said the latest aerial visuals showed Boo was "hanging out and enjoying life with a female," but staff would still prefer to have him return to the 10-hectare facility.

"We're in current discussions with the Ministry of the Environment . . . to determine which decisions are the best for public safety and the safety of the bear," he said.

Although wildlife conservation groups agree that almost anything is better than captivity, there is debate over whether dropping Boo in a remote wilderness would be the best solution.

"The reality of that is grizzly bears don't do well when they're relocated to new areas," said Tracey Henderson, program director at the Grizzly Bear Alliance. "They're plunked down into some other territorial male bear's habitat, so often they end up either getting killed, or getting into trouble because they don't know the area and can't find the food sources."

Given the choice, though, she believes Boo would rather take his chances in nature than die in captivity. "Really, he's already showed that to us by his second escape."

The first step toward reintroducing Boo into the wild is aversive conditioning. In this process, trainers pelt bears with sandbags, shoot them with rubber bullets "and generally teach them humans are unpleasant," Ellen Zimmerman, program manager of Wildsight, explained.

Before heading farther from Kicking Horse, it appeared as though Boo's honeymoon was winding down on Tuesday when he wandered back to within five km of the compound.

Boo grew up in the sanctuary an orphan, after a hunter in Quesnel illegally shot and killed his mother in 2002. His brother, Cari, died at Kicking Horse from a twisted intestine and Boo had been alone ever since.