{"id":23157,"date":"2020-11-25T17:07:34","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T22:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=23157"},"modified":"2020-11-27T13:41:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-27T18:41:02","slug":"frequency-of-bear-raids-decreasing-in-squirrel-cove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/frequency-of-bear-raids-decreasing-in-squirrel-cove\/","title":{"rendered":"Frequency of bear raids decreasing in Squirrel Cove"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales<\/p>\n

After two very intensive weeks, the frequency of\u00a0bear raids<\/a>\u00a0along Squirrel Cove road, on\u00a0Cortes Island<\/a>, appears to be decreasing.<\/p>\n

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\"All<\/a>

All images of the Squirrel Cove black bear taken from Graham Blake\u2019s web cam recording of Sep. 8. Photo courtesy of Graham Blake.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Sandy Hoffman <\/a>has been keeping tabs on developments locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThursday night around 11 p.m. the bear went through on Graham [Blake\u2019s]<\/a> property by the trail cam, which is between our properties, but on his side,\" Hoffman said. \"It was coming out from [Basil] Creek<\/a>. So I would guess that it goes down my driveway. That\u2019s all connected to the logging road that goes out my driveway to [Squirrel Cove Road].\u201d<\/p>\n

The last known incident: Sunday night<\/h2>\n

Hoffman said there were no incidents reported on Thursday or Friday and that the last anyone heard was that it was back at Laurel's on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

The bear had not found anything to eat at Bohart\u2019s, but did get into a neighbours compost.<\/p>\n

Laurel Bohart<\/a>\u00a0described what she saw, walking beside Basil Creek.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trail is broader than it used to be, so we think the bear is coming and going fairly frequently. Up and down the edge of the creek, through Nancy\u2019s property at the back and down along the trail below her,\u201d said Bohart.<\/p>\n

\"Squirrel<\/a>

Black bear footprints on the porch of a home in Squirrel Cove. Photo courtesy of Leslie Perdisa.<\/p><\/div>\n

Bohart said that there was no trace of scat but that the ground was trampled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not disturbing freezers. It is actually a very polite bear. It\u2019s coming along, poking around to see if there is anything good [to eat] and then leaving again,\" Bohart added.<\/p>\n

Bohart\u2019s tone changed after opening her compost bin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he put fresh compost in there. I wish he\u2019d tossed it somewhere else. Sandy puts her\u2019s in the bin at the recycling centre. Oh thanks Tom, that\u2019s fresh stuff. Oh well, it is mostly lettuce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bear will go for lettuce. I think this guy specializes in compost, what do you think?\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

There have been at least three attacks on buildings and all of them were apple related.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u00a0the bear ate all of our apples that it could find the first time<\/a>, so there is nothing left. Well, we locked the door to the house, so it can\u2019t get in the house where the apples are \u2013 and it hasn\u2019t tried getting in,\u201d said Bohart.<\/p>\n

Attacks on buildings<\/h2>\n

All of the attacks on buildings occurred last week. As mentioned in CKTZ's first report, the bear burst open the door to Leslie Perdisa\u2019s cellar<\/a>\u00a0and was driven off while it was ripping the siding at\u00a0Mack-Mumford\u2019s<\/a>. CKTZ just learned of the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The bear] didn\u2019t break in, but it was trying. It broke the dryer vent off of our wash house on the outside \u2013 because it could smell apples in our washhouse, apparently,\" said Nancy Beach<\/a> said. \"It was also clawing at the lock on the door and it ripped a little bit of the sheathing off the door at the bottom. There was some cans beside it as well, with some liquids \u2013 which he bit into. He probably didn\u2019t like the taste of those very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt returned the next night, I think, and then squashed the vent pipe \u2026\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

That was a week ago.<\/p>\n

\"Locations<\/a>

Locations associated with the Squirrel Cove bear. Photo adapted from Google Maps by Roy L Hales.<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"A<\/a>

The Squirrel Cove black bear. Image courtesy of Graham Blake\u2019s web cam recording on Sep. 8.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Frequency of bear raids decreasing<\/h2>\n

The only recent incidents occurred Sunday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe the bear is spending more time in the creek? Maybe it\u2019s getting ready to hibernate? I don\u2019t think the bear has moved on if it was at Laurel\u2019s on Sunday night \u2013 at least the one bear and it could easily be more than one bear,\u201d said Hoffman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are two bears. I think there is a larger one and a two year old female with small paws \u2013 but that is a guess, I don\u2019t really know,\u201d said Bohart.<\/p>\n

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\"All<\/a>

The Squirrel Cove black bear. Image courtesy of Graham Blake\u2019s web cam recording on Sep. 8.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

A word of advice<\/h2>\n

Sandy Hoffman has some advice for people whose houses have not yet been raided.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the number one thing is to make sure you don\u2019t have anything like fresh compost, apples or any attractants out because once the bear has been to your place, and was successful, it will continue to come back. They are very optimistic creatures,\" she said.<\/p>\n

\"The bear has come to our place three times after there was nothing left. There are no attractants, but it was successful one time and remembers. It keeps trying,\" Hoffman added. \"I don\u2019t know how many times it takes before the bear says \u2018okay, enough already, I\u2019m not coming back there anymore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales After two very intensive weeks, the frequency of\u00a0bear raids\u00a0along Squirrel Cove road, on\u00a0Cortes Island, appears to be decreasing. Sandy Hoffman has been keeping tabs on developments locally. \u201cThursday night around 11 p.m. the bear went through on Graham [Blake\u2019s] property by the trail cam, which is between our properties, but on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":23165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[222],"tags":[3601,314,3428],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23157"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=23157"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=23157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}