A young grizzly bear in Davis Bay near Sechelt, September, 2024. B.C.’s estimated 15,000 grizzlies almost all live on the mainland.MARTIN DAVIS/Supplied
Some time in late May, a young male grizzly made an improbable journey to Texada Island, one of the few rural communities in British Columbia that is considered bear-free. His most likely path involved a challenging but not impossible swim of about five kilometres across the Malaspina Strait from the mainland.
The bear who has been dubbed “Tex” is believed to be four years old – a teenager who would have been chased from his home by bigger grizzlies, including his mother.
While the Texada Island community is divided between fear of the bear and concern for its welfare, both sides agree that Tex can’t stay. But the provincial government doesn’t want to move him.
“People are on edge,” said Katrin Glenn-Bittner, a long-time resident of Texada, the largest of the Gulf Islands. The bear has visited her remote farm at least twice, but that’s not what scares her. She feels like the bear, labelled aggressive by the provincial government, has been set up for conflict that will likely end badly for him.
Black bears are found in most non-urban areas of the province, but B.C.’s estimated 15,000 grizzlies almost all live on the mainland. They have been listed as extirpated on Vancouver Island and the smaller coastal islands for more than a century. For this youngster, Texada would seem like a haven, without dominant bears around to threaten him.
He was first spotted on the island on May 25, and likely swam from Powell River, where he had been seen a week earlier.
If he had remained on the Sunshine Coast, he might have found a warmer reception. Conservationists there are building bear dens out of old growth stumps to help bears reclaim habitat that has been damaged by commercial logging.
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On Texada Island, however, residents have not learned to live alongside large predators. Texada Elementary’s principal announced that because of the bear’s presence, the school bus would not drop off students unless there was someone on hand to meet them.
“There’s no future here for him on Texada Island, because he’s targeted, and if he makes a mistake – which may very well happen – he will be instantly destroyed,” said Ms. Glenn-Bittner, who has organized the funds to pay for the bear to be relocated to a remote section of the B.C. central coast.
The Mamalilikulla First Nation wants to bring the grizzly to their traditional territories on the central coast, where they are working to restore grizzly populations. The nation established an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) in the Lull Bay/Hoeya Sound watershed in Knight Inlet four years ago.
“When they said there was a bear in trouble, I said, that’s one of our brothers, bring it up here,” Chief John Powell said in an interview. But the government spurned his offer.
“The unfortunate thing is, it leaves the bear in a place where a chance encounter is going to end up ending in a bad way. It doesn’t make sense to me to leave it where it is,” he said.
The Mamalilikulla have been working on watershed restoration in their ICPA and salmon are starting to return. At this time of year, Tex would also find plenty of protein-rich sedges for sustenance in the Lull-Hoeya estuary.
But the bear cannot be moved without the approval and participation of the B.C. Conservation Officer Service.
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The COS knows this bear: Tex was relocated twice last year after he was found wandering near schools and downtown areas in Gibsons and Sechelt. But they didn’t move him far enough, and the bear returned to populated areas. Because of that, they say he is not a candidate to be moved again.
The COS released a statement saying the bear is displaying aggressive behaviour to both people and livestock, but it does not have plans to either kill or relocate the bear from Texada at this time. Officials did not respond to interview requests.
Neither Randene Neill, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, nor Tamara Davidson, Minister of Environment and Parks, would agree to an interview.
The two issued a joint statement saying there is “no ‘kill order’ on this bear.” “However, it is also our responsibility to keep people safe and if further behaviour by the grizzly bear occurs that threatens public safety, Conservation Officers will respond to those situations. These are difficult decisions, but again, people’s safety is always the top priority. It is our hope that it will not come to this, and the bear will move on independently.”
Bear biologist Wayne McCrory, a leading expert on grizzly bear hazard assessments, said Tex’s travels are not so unusual: There is increasing evidence of grizzlies returning to the islands. But he said the population remains fragile, and his efforts to broker the bear’s move to Mamalilikulla territory is justified.
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“It would be an ideal place to attempt another translocation,” he said. He estimates there is a 30-per-cent chance the bear will stay put if it is relocated. But he is certain the bear will end up dead if it remains where it is.
“We need to step out of the box of the Conservation Officer Services, and go the extra mile to try and keep these bears alive, instead of leaving them wandering around quite an inhabited island.”
Tex has another ally. Ellie Lamb has spent 28 years as a bear guide, specializing in grizzlies. She reviewed the reports of his behaviour and maintains the COS is unfairly characterizing a young and playful bear as aggressive.
“This bear has shown no aggression with humans – none – and no level of food conditioning either. So why this bear is not given the opportunity to stay alive is inconceivable.”
Grizzlies are listed as a species of special concern under Canada’s Species At Risk Act. Populations are declining because they are vulnerable to human disturbance and they suffer unsustainable mortality rates in some parts of the country.
Ms. Lamb, who has spent countless hours in the wilderness with grizzlies, believes people have been conditioned to respond with fear because grizzlies are widely misunderstood. People can co-exist with bears, if they understand how.
“I’ve been taught by the bears, and I am just teaching people, that when a bear is in front of them, it doesn’t mean that their life flashes before their eyes, but they actually can peacefully move away from the bear and give them space,” she said.
“Different bears have different personalities, but as a general rule, they’re evolved to get along with others.”