bears

By Angela Gemmill

Now that spring is here it means we’ll be seeing a lot more of bears roaming around neighbourhoods in search of food.

A wildlife biologist at Cambrian College says these bruins are coming out of hibernation much hungrier than usual.

Professor Joe Hamr, is Cambrian’s Coordinator of the Environmental Monitoring and Impact Assessment program.

He says we can blame the long harsh winter, since bears only came out of their winter sleep in mid April.

That’s two weeks later than normal.

Hamr warns that these bruins will follow their nose to food and could become a nuisance or a danger to residents or their pets.

If a bear is on someone’s property, Hamr suggests making noise to get it to go away or wait until the animal is done feasting on whatever food it’s found.

Birdseed and garbage are the biggest attractants for bears.

Hamr suggests cleaning up under bird-feeders and only putting garbage out the morning of pick-up.

You can report nuisance bears to the Bear Wise tip line: 1-866-514-2327 or call 9-1-1 in an emergency.