Boo(and Grinder) Get Unkindest Cut of All

Jane Seyd
jseyd@nsnews.com

BOO, the break-out grizzly bear who made headlines earlier this summer when he escaped twice from his enclosure at Kicking Horse Resort's wildlife refuge in a quest for female companionship, has undergone a surgical solution to his wanderlust.

Resort spokesman Mike Dalzell confirmed that Boo, who spent the first part of his life at the Grouse Mountain Wildlife Refuge, has been neutered following his voluntary return to the resort after his last prison break.

Dalzell said the refuge had always planned to neuter Boo, because he had been deemed unreleasable due to his familiarity with humans. "We did it a bit earlier than we had planned to," he said.

Ken Macquisten, veterinarian at Grouse Mountain's Wildlife Refuge, where Boo lived for six months as a young bear cub, said neutering the bear was the best option given that he must live in captivity.

"Leaving his testicles on would put his life at risk," said Macquisten.

In June, the four-year-old grizzly bear stunned wildlife officials by making not just one - but two - prison breaks out of his 22-acre enclosure to heed the call of the wild after catching scents of female grizzlies in the area.

In the last breakout, just a day after he was recaptured, Boo succeeded in lifting the 400-pound steel door of his den, then shorting out two layers of four-metre high reinforced electric fencing to make his dash for freedom.

Several wildlife groups, including the North Shore-based Bear Matters B.C., urged the province to allow Boo to remain in the wild and take his chances.

But after sowing his wild oats, Boo opted to come home instead.

"It wasn't an option to let him be free because he'd always be coming back to the resort," said Dalzell.

He said since returning to the resort, Boo has regained the weight he lost while in the wild and "his behaviour is very much like it always has been."

Not everyone is pleased that Boo has gone under the knife.

"I'm really upset that Boo was castrated. The problem with Boo escaping was the fence," said Barbara Murray of the North Shore's Bear Matters B.C.

"They've altered a wild animal. He is no longer natural," said Murray. "It's a very sad outcome for a bear."

Murray said she had hoped authorities would allow Boo to return to the wild after his escape from the refuge.

"He's a very pathetic creature now without his male sexual organs," she said. "That was one thing he had going for him."

But Macquisten disagreed.

He said when Boo's sexual urges struck again in the next mating season, he would probably be driven to escape again unless he was kept in a much smaller and stronger steel and concrete enclosure. He said that's the life Boo would be facing unless he was neutered.

Macquisten added grizzly bears are only hormonally driven during a brief one-month mating season. "He's not going to miss it," he said. "It's not going to change his life for the worst."

Boo isn't the only captive grizzly bear to recently go under the knife.

Grinder, a five-year-old male grizzly at the Grouse Mountain Wildlife Refuge was also neutered this year after he began to take an interest in the presence of wild female black bears in the area.

Coola, the other male grizzly bear at the North Vancouver refuge, has not yet been neutered, but if his behaviour causes any concerns, he will also get the snip, said Macquisten.