Heather Travis, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, July 04, 2006

GOLDEN - Eight wildlife conservation groups have joined in voicing concerns about Boo, a runaway grizzly bear, being returned to his home at a ski resort near Golden.

Four and a half-year-old Boo escaped June 24 from his seemingly secure refuge at the Kicking Horse Ski Resort. It was his second escape -- after the first he was discovered west of the resort with a female grizzly, or sow, and was returned to the resort.

Conservation groups suggest Boo be relocated to a remote northern wilderness area, far away from humans, as an alternative to the ski resort.

"Ideally I would like [Boo] to turn his back on the resort and never come back," said Ellen Zimmerman, program manager for Wildsight. "However there are problems with plunking him down in another bear's property."

Zimmerman said a grizzly bear who is used to having 1,000-square kilometers of space will never be satisfied with his much smaller refuge enclosure. She suggested the orphaned bear should have been rehabilitated into the wild, rather than being used as a source of entertainment.

Boo has been located by wildlife conservationists, but the resort and the provincial government are still trying to come up with a plan for him.

"We feel the refuge is not adequate to keep the bear," said Michael Dalzell, director of sales and marketing at Kicking Horse. "There has to be adjustments made."

The resort provides Boo with a nine-hectare enclosure, including a log cabin hibernation den. The entire area is surrounded by two layers of 3.6-metre high electrical fence. To keep Boo from digging his way out, more than one metre of steel permeates the ground underneath the fence.

Dalzell said the resort and the Ministry of the Environment are considering many options, including returning Boo to the wild.

Meanwhile, the resort is carefully monitoring the bear's whereabouts by air surveillance and is keeping the public updated on their website.

Boo and his sister Cari were brought to the refuge after being orphaned when a man illegally killed their mother.

Cari died in April 2004 due to a twisted intestine.

Clayton Apps, a wildlife research biologist who has worked with grizzly bears for eight years, said a bear used to being fed by humans may not possess the skills to find food on his own.

"If he starts to become food-stressed, I expect he will come to people," Apps said. "That will be dangerous."