Rob Gibson The issue of human-bear conflict is front and centre again after a bear had to be tranquillized in downtown Kelowna recently. "Unfortunately, Kelowna is not a bear-smart community. The garbage containers we have available now aren't certified bear-resistant — why?" asked BC Conservation officer Ken Owens at the scene on May 17.
A black bear spotted in the area around Water Street ended up in a tree on Water Street. Conservation officers made the decision to tranquillize the bear and transport it back into the bush instead of euthanizing it. "It's so frustrating for us in the Conservation Officer Service, because we have to do this more frequently than a lot of people realize," Owens said.
"Toughest job that we have to do is put down an animal but sometimes it has to be done." The Water Street bear was one of the lucky ones, it got a second chance at life, but Owens says it doesn't always go that way. "This particular bear, just based on the history that we have with him, we're going to ear tag him, we're going to relocate it.
That's extremely rare where that does happen because their sense of smell is 2,100 times better than ours, they don't forget where they get a food source and he's been in unprotected garbage down here." "So if he comes back in, we may have to make the difficult decision to euthanize this bear." Public, government urged to do better Owens called out Central Okanagan residents, governments and businesses.
"It's not just the residents, it's the.
