A black bear searching for food that climbed into the back of a van in the Westwood Plateau neighbourhood while a child was in the front seat Saturday has not been caught.
Eric Tyukodi of the BC Conservation Service Office said the incident happened just before 8 a.m. Sept. 1 when a family was loading groceries into the vehicle to take to a neighbour. The mother and another child had gone back to get some more groceries but when they returned, they saw a bear pulling a bag of oats out of the back of the van.
“They managed to scare the animal off with the panic alarm of the vehicle. The bear went to a neighbour’s yard, where it ate the oats,” said Tyukodi.
After dining out on the uncooked porridge, the bear moved off into North Hoy Creek Park, a 14-acre forested area with trails, said Tyukodi. Officers searched the park but were unable to find the bruin. A trap was set but, as of Tuesday, it had not been caught, according to the CSO.
“This animal has two ear tags on it. We were unclear as to how big the animal was. They were concerned for the child, obviously, but no contact was made with the child. There was no damage to the vehicle itself. The only thing on the vehicle was the paw prints on the vehicle,” said Tyukodi, who added the caller mentioned the bear had been seen in the neighbourhood before.
“This is very concerning to us as it has no fear of people and it has a high food conditioning and human habituation, so it’s definitely something we want to remove from that area.”
Iain Black, president and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and a former MLA, tweeted a picture of the bear, saying, “This bear went *into the van* of my neighbour this morning, and took food out of the back… while their son was inside it! He’s been tagged twice already, so they likely [will] have to destroy this beautiful animal. Please don’t feed bears of leave your garbage out.”
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