A petition calling on the BC Conservation Officer Service to relocate rather than euthanize a black bear that swatted a woman on the upper Coquitlam Crunch trail last Saturday is gaining attention.
Nearly 1,600 people have signed the online petition at change.org with many saying humans, not bears are the problem, while others are criticizing development in Coquitlam for encroaching on bear territory.
“Please relocate the bear. The bear wasn’t aggressive. We need to relocate if needed,” states Magda Rosen, who was one of the first signees to the petition started two days ago by Navneet Jha.
The woman who was touched by the bear hasn’t reached out to the Tri-City News but CTV reports she wasn’t hurt in the incident, and the contact felt like being scratched by a dog.
@_BCCOS says Upper part of #Coquitlam Crunch is closed due to bear approaching a woman. Trap has been set. #BearAware Video shows what happened. pic.twitter.com/xkGoUm069U
— Diane Strandberg (@DstrandbergTC) August 31, 2020
In the video, the woman sees the bear at the edge of the trail and freezes, at which point the bear walks up to her and taps her, then rushes away briefly. When it saunters back toward her, the woman uses the opportunity to continue her run down the trail and the bear watches her go.
The man who shot the widely-seen video of the incident, Sam Abdullah, also wants the bear to be relocated and says he’s concerned the Crunch bear is being mistaken for another larger bear that has been causing trouble in the area.
“I believe that bear isn’t dangerous to the community as his reaction is normal when he found himself surrounded by the runner. The runner froze and [the bear] was trying to defend himself gently,” he said.
He says there are numerous bears in the area, including a large black bear in nearby Port Moody, which a video shows was scared away by a honking horn.
“Even with this aggressive bear we are managing very well,” said Abdullah, who lives about a kilometre from the Crunch.
He’s also concerned people are mistaken in why he took the video, which shows him walking closer to the bruin.
According to Abdullah, when he started the video on his phone he was well away from the bear. He only walked closer with the idea of throwing water from his water bottle to distract the bear if the woman was in danger. However, the bear wasn’t aggressive, only startled, and when the woman moved past the bear, he left the area quickly, too.
“I walked closer only to save the woman,” he said.
He believes the bear was not being aggressive, only startled, and shouldn’t be euthanized as a conflict bear.
Bear sightings in the Coquitlam Crunch area are not unusual and in March the city of Coquitlam warned residents to keep attractants secure because of bear conflict concerns.
Meanwhile, the Tri-City News has reached out for comment from the BC Conservation Officer Service.
On Monday, Insp. Murray Smith said a decision hadn’t been made about the bear. If caught, its fate would depended on a number of factors.
But he told the Tri-City News that the fact that the bear approached a human was concerning.
“To me, it’s a bear that’s lost its fear of people, it’s human habituated,” Insp. Smith said Monday.
Meanwhile, Abdullah, said he supports the petition because he is concerned about the bear.
