{"id":400698,"date":"2025-11-24T05:48:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T05:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/400698\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T05:48:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T05:48:18","slug":"community-unsettled-after-coastal-b-c-grizzly-attack-injures-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/400698\/","title":{"rendered":"Community unsettled after coastal B.C. grizzly attack injures 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A teacher and three students were airlifted to hospital on Thursday after being attacked by a bear in coastal B.C. community, Bella Coola.Chad Hipolito\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Members of the Nuxalk First Nation remained in virtual lockdown this weekend, urged to stay in their homes as authorities searched for a mother grizzly bear and two cubs believed to be involved in the recent attack on a large group of elementary-school students.<\/p>\n

In the remote Nuxalk community of 4 Mile, adjacent to Bella Coola on the central coast, residents who are comfortable being outdoors have been told to leave the search to others. <\/p>\n

Nuxalk Chief Councillor Samuel Schooner said he drove around the village this weekend, warning people to be careful and not to try searching for the bears themselves. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just letting them know, on a personal level, to be very aware of your surroundings,\u201d he said. \u201cJust let the people do their work, you know, don\u2019t be out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four people \u2013 a teacher and three young students \u2013 were airlifted to hospital Thursday after the attack. In all, 11 were injured. They were among a group of students from the Acwsalcta School on a field trip. The independent school, which is run by the Nuxalk, emphasizes a cultural and nature-based curriculum, and such outings are common.<\/p>\n

Earlier: Search continues for three grizzly bears after students, teachers attacked in B.C.<\/a><\/p>\n

During the weekend, a predator attack response team cordoned off a large section of the river valley, seeking to live-trap the bears. They have collected DNA samples of the bears\u2019 saliva, taken from the clothing of victims of the attack, which will allow them to identify the attackers out of a large population of grizzlies that live in the area.<\/p>\n

But the bears, likely just weeks away from hibernation, eluded capture throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been patrolling throughout the night, through the days, and we\u2019ve had a number of traps and snares set and camera traps throughout the area,\u201d said Sergeant Jeff Tyre of the Conservation Officer Service, or COS, at a news conference Sunday. But the search has turned up no bears.<\/p>\n

He said there is no plan to scale back the search, which spans a few kilometres around the area of the attack.<\/p>\n

About 20 students were having lunch while out on a field trip Thursday afternoon when a bear emerged from the woods and attacked. <\/p>\n

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CSO says any bears caught that were not involved in the attack will be relocated.Chad Hipolito\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The teachers emptied two cans of bear spray and deployed bear bangers \u2013 modified shotgun shells designed to create a startling noise and visual display \u2013 before the bear eventually was deterred.<\/p>\n

Along with the COS actions, an RCMP helicopter has been scanning for heat signatures in the dense, forested valley to help locate the bears. <\/p>\n

The Nuxalk leadership have been protective of their community, asking media not to visit the school or to try to speak to survivors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are children, and they\u2019re still hurting emotionally, physically,\u201d said Mr. Schooner.<\/p>\n

On Saturday night, in a bid to provide some normalcy in the traumatized community, the Nuxalk gathered as usual to play basketball. What was different this time was that RCMP officers were on hand to make sure residents could return safely to their homes.<\/p>\n

In a statement Sunday, the Conservation Officer Service said any bears captured will be assessed, in consultation with wildlife biologists, to \u201cdetermine next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The COS has been careful to focus on live-trapping efforts without discussing publicly the possibility of killing bears.<\/p>\n

The Nuxalk Nation helped end B.C.\u2019s trophy hunting of grizzlies on the Central Coast, because of its deep cultural relationship with the animals.<\/p>\n

For the broader community in Bella Coola, the incident is unsettling. <\/p>\n

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Bella Coola Mountain Lodge owner Shannon Lansdowne in neighbouring town Hagensborg. Lansdowne says there have been more residential bear sightings but it’s not clear why.Chad Hipolito\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Shannon Lansdowne is co-owner of Bella Coola Grizzly tours, and president of Bella Coola Valley tourism. She said the valley\u2019s bears play a huge role in attracting visitors from around the world. <\/p>\n

\u201cBear viewing is what put Bella Coola on the map,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Ms. Lansdowne regularly hikes with her children in the valley \u2013 although that is temporarily on hold while the grizzly responsible for the attack is at large. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t stop taking our kids out,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is what we do here, especially the First Nations who have been living among these animals forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been more bears showing up in residential areas this year, she said, and it\u2019s not clear why. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese aren\u2019t your teddy bears, they\u2019re wild animals,\u201d she said. \u201cResidents here, we have a lot of respect for them, but these bears have no fear now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sgt. Tyre said surveillance shows that there are still many grizzlies in the area. Any bears that are caught that are not involved in the incident will be relocated, he said. <\/p>\n

The valley bottom along the Bella Coola river is difficult terrain for a search, and officers are in the field around the clock. He cautioned that trapping the bears may take some time. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe bears don\u2019t necessarily co-operate,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is, speaking from experience, probably the most dangerous thing that conservation officers do, especially dealing with family units with sows.\u201d <\/p>\n

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B.C. Conservation vehicle sits parked along Chilcotin Bella Coola Highway. COS Sgt. Jeff Tyre says the group has been setting traps throughout the affected area.Chad Hipolito\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A teacher and three students were airlifted to hospital on Thursday after being…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":400699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,50,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,1458,158,1164,2141,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-400698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-news","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}