Commentary, nature, Photography

Visiting the City

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I saw this deer across the street as I was leaving home.

He seemed to have found some yummy leaves and was intent on chowing down. Normally I cross the road to where the deer is standing, but I didn’t want to bother him.

With the drought and fires this season, the animals have had a tough time of it and more and more are entering urban areas to find food. This includes an uptick in the number of bears coming into people’s yards, as shown in the recent photos below from Quesnel, British Columbia; the entire article is here.

Photo by Julie Dorge Photography

This is a grizzly bear. Black bears are more commonly found in urban areas but grizzlies are different. They dislike and avoid humans, so this tells me that they are being driven by hunger.

Photo by Julie Dorge Photography

This underweight grizzly is pulling crabapples from a tree in a residential yard. Given the difficult summer they’ve had, we will likely begin to see more of them trying to fatten up for hibernation and will need to be cautious.

Happy Wednesday.

24 thoughts on “Visiting the City”

    1. I agree, Steve. This grizzly was in a town about 5 hours to the north of us, so no threat here, but we do have grizzlies about in the mountains around us. Black bears are more likely to enter communities looking for food, but not grizzlies. They are actually very shy but the numerous fires have badly affected their food sources and they’re entering towns.

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    1. I agree. To see a skinny grizzly coming into a town is a very forceful reminder of how badly animals have been affected. I think our wildlife rehabilitation centres are going to be very busy, if not already.

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  4. Oh my – the effects of drought and fire are concerning. Hopefully you will get more rain soon. That grizzly definitely needs more food – I know they’re dangerous, but it looks kind of cute standing up under the tree.

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    1. They certainly are, Barbara. We did get a nice slow rain last night which would have helped extinguish the latest fire that started nearby on Sunday. Yes, grizzlies are notoriously bad-tempered, but they are shy and avoid humans whenever possible. They’re grumpy loners, really.

      The wild animal sanctuaries are extremely busy right now with nursing and rehabilitating so many animals that have been affected or injured by the fires. I followed up on this particular bear and learned that he is being picked up by conservation and relocated to a back country area since apart from hunger, he doesn’t seem hurt. I hope things turn around for him.

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      1. Hi Lynette – thanks for telling me about all this. I’m glad the bear is being relocated. It certainly isn’t its fault for having to venture into populated areas for food.

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  5. We saw a number of deer on our trips to Penticton, but never a bear. A hungry bear in town is a bit scary. There is a bear warning out in Jasper town right now. The town is trying to get all the fruit trees cut down to remove the danger. Happy Wednesday Lynette. Allan

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    1. Hi Allan, this grizzly is in Quesnel, although we apparently have had many more than the usual number of deer and black bears as well as foxes and coyotes in town. A couple of weeks ago, conservation apparently relocated a moose that was in a backyard. The fires have destroyed a lot of habitat and so many animals are simply displaced. The grizzly in Quesnel is going to be trapped and moved into the back country by conservation. It’s definitely scary to have them in town, but I feel so bad for them. Grizzlies are usually so human-avoidant.

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    1. Hi Lori, this grizzly was sighted in a town to the north of us, so no, he’s not in my neighbourhood, thankfully. I followed up on him though and learned that conservation is moving him into the back country where there’s no active fires. We’ve had a lot of other animals in town lately, however. Recently conservation moved a moose that was in someone’s back yard!

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  8. I could Bearly recognize him as a grizzly as he was so thin, glad he got a good crabapple snack. It has always amazed me that bears favorite foods are fruits etc. Well unless there is a nice salmon around.

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    1. I agree. I could Bearly recognise him, either. He was picked up by conservation officers who took him into the back country where there are no fires. He’s probably starving because his habitat has been affected (or maybe totally destroyed) by fire. I hope he’s more able to find food in his new location; yes, lots of salmon.

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  9. It’s sad to hear about the impacts climate change and wildfires have had on the wildlife. It’s never a good sign to see bears in the suburbs. And it typically doesn’t bode well for the bears.

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    1. Agreed, Linda. Usually it’s the bears who don’t fare well. To see a grizzly in an urban area is extremely unusual as they very shy and try to avoid humans. I followed up on this bear and found out that conservation officials trapped him and took him out into the back country where there aren’t any fires.
      Wildlife sanctuaries have been nursing a lot of fire-injured animals (burns and smoke inhalation) but this bear was apparently unharmed except that he wasn’t getting enough food because of habitat damage. I hope he’s doing much better now.

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