Project Peek-a-Boo could make bear a Net sensation
His return to the wild includes satellite tracking device

Michael Smyth, The Province
Published: Wednesday, July 05, 2006

He's broken out of captivity twice. Now he just might break into stardom on the World Wide Web.

Boo the bear, the freedom-loving orphaned grizzly who has twice escaped his pen at a B.C. ski resort, could be left in the wild and become an online Internet attraction.

That's the goal of a unique program being considered by the B.C. government -- dubbed "Project Peek-a-Boo" -- that might see Boo recaptured, fitted with a satellite tracking device, and released back into the wild so the public and scientists can track his movements over the Internet.

"I'm not interested in having Boo returned to captivity," B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner told me yesterday in an exclusive interview.

"We're seriously considering a way we can give Boo his chance at freedom while educating the public in the process."

The 41/2-year-old grizzly, orphaned as a cub when his mother was shot by a hunter, has twice managed to break out of his pen at the Kicking Horse Resort near Golden.

In his first great escape, Boo dug a tunnel under his fence. After 19 days of freedom, Boo was recaptured and returned to his enclosure.

But it was his next break-out, on June 25, that really impressed. Boo smashed through a 180-kilogram steel door and two electrified fences to freedom. He's been on the lam ever since.

Now the debate is raging about what to do with this liberty-loving bear.

Some say Boo should be locked up again before he becomes a menace to humans or is killed by another grizzly. Others say Boo deserves a chance to make it on his own.

Penner says Boo has earned his walk on the wild side. "He's obviously heard the call of the wild, and I'm prepared to accept that if we can keep him on an electronic leash," Penner said, adding he expects to make a decision within the next few days on whether Project Peek-a-Boo is a go.

Critics of the calls to leave Boo in the wild say he has become too accustomed to people and it's just a matter of time before he approaches humans looking for food. Others worry that because he hasn't learned proper survival skills in the wild that he could starve or be killed by another grizzly.

Fitting Boo with a tracking device -- such as a collar containing a global positioning system transmitter -- is Penner's preferred option.

"That way we could track his movements and if he starts to approach a human settlement we could warn the community or, if necessary, intercept the bear," he said.

He also thinks Boo could become an Internet sensation. Computer users could go online to a special website to see Boo's location and learn about bears and their habitat.

Penner acknowledges the odds are stacked against Boo. He might not know how to find food for himself. An aggressive male grizzly might kill him. A conservation officer might be forced to shoot him if he ventures too close to humans.

"Life in the wild is nasty, brutish and short," he said.

Too true. But I say Boo has earned his chance to live in the wild. Or die trying. It's a grizzly thing.

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