Bear, 2 cubs destroyed in Fredericton park after being deemed a public safety risk

Three bears — a sow and her two cubs — were destroyed Sunday night by forest rangers with the Department of Natural Resources after spending the weekend near houses in a Fredericton neighbourhood and then in a city park.

The bears were deemed a risk to public safety, Kristian Moore, the executive director of the department's natural resources division, said Friday.

"It's regrettable that the bears had to be euthanized and that is always a last resort. You know, staff don't like having to euthanize an animal."

Moore told CBC's Information Morning Fredericton the bears were first seen Saturday morning in a tree along Golf Club Road.

City police closed the road to traffic while Natural Resources staff monitored the situation.

He said the three bears couldn't be tranquilized that day because the bears were beyond the maximum 50 metres range of the equipment. Staff safety also had to be considered.

"We couldn't get close enough to use the tranquilizer dart."

On Sunday, forest rangers were called to Odell Park, and found the same bears about 30 metres up a tree.

Moore said the rangers stayed on site and monitored the situation all day.

"Again, the consideration was to, if an opportunity provided itself, to use the tranquilizer dart."

But with the bears in the tree and the limits of the tranquilizer gun, a live trap was set up in the hopes the bears would enter it. But by dark they hadn't, and Moore said the decision was made to destroy the bears instead.

"These bears are obviously acclimatized to public areas and, you know, they weren't looking to find their way to the woods, and most likely would travel to an adjacent home or owners' properties or further into the city the following day."

Moore said that although Odell Park is forested, it is frequented by joggers, hikers and cyclists, and overall is a busy place for recreational use.

"Public safety is always paramount and in this case, as I said, there was a concern for public given the proximity of homes and businesses."

While it depends on the circumstance, Moore said Natural Resources tries to relocate bears that get too close to homes and businesses after they've identified a food source.

"If a food source is removed then then the bears move on."

"If that's not the case and we can get into a situation where we can tranquilize, in this case, a bear, we will do that. And then the last, obviously the last resort is to euthanize a bear."

Moore said all actions taken by department staff are done against the backdrop of public safety, but he understands why the public gets upset when they hear rangers have had to put down animals.

"People have that feeling of wildlife and and that's understandable."

Moore said the province has a healthy population of bears estimated at 18,000 to 20,000. Because of the high yield for berries and nuts in 2019, bears were very healthy when they went into hibernation.

"The result was this year, in 2020, we see a lot of female bears with two and a lot of cases, three cubs. So the bear population is doing very well in New Brunswick."