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MERRITT HERALD FREE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
GARLIC FEST DELIGHTS Left: Garlic Festival co-organizer Pete Ratzlaff weighs some of the bulb of honour for his relatives Barb and Dean Seaman, who took in their first Garlic Festival on the weekend. This year’s festival at Smith-Pioneer Park in Lower Nicola saw about 1,500 people drop in over Saturday and Sunday, co-organizer Becky Ratzlaff said. Right: A dog agility competition and tractor pull were new additions to the festival, which also featured the usual sights and sounds of vintage cars, tractors, musical acts and vendors. Michael Potestio/Herald
Bears finding plenty to eat in Merritt By Michael Potestio THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
Four bears habituated to humans were euthanized by a Merritt conservation officer last Tuesday morning. RCMP and Merritt’s Conservation Officer Service responded to a report of a mother and her two cubs who had been feeding on garbage they found on Second Avenue. Conservation officer Jon Paquin told the Herald the sow and cubs were found along a route commonly used by children to walk to school.
Paquin said the conservation office had been monitoring the family of bears for a few weeks and found they had become habituated to humans and conditioned to eating non-natural food sources — targeting garbage specifically. Given these factors, the bears were euthanized for public safety concerns, he said. Paquin said he was able to come within about 20 feet of the bear family. They were indifferent to his presence, showing him they were habituated to humans. “The cubs — because
This bear trap was set up in the front yard of a Second Avenue property last Tuesday to deal with four problem bears. Two adult bears were deemed threats to public safety and two cubs were not candidates for relocation. Michael Potestio/Herald
they were learning from their mother — they were
heavily habituated and they were reliant on non-natural
food sources, such as garbage. They were not suitable for relocation at that point in time and they were euthanized as well,” Paquin said. At about the same time, another bear was reported — this time at Rotary Park near children playing on the jungle gym. The bear even got within a few feet of a local woman. When Paquin attended, the bear was just leaving the park. He attempted to move it into a green space and chase it out of town, but the bear ended up wandering over to Second
Avenue to feast on the same garbage the bear family had been eating. It, too, was put down for public safety concerns. In Merritt, unsecured garbage and unkept fruit trees are the top two nonnatural food sources available to bears in the community, Paquin told the Herald. This time of year is high time for bears to be stocking up on food for the winter as they are in a period known as hyperphagia, when they eat and drink excessively to prepare for hibernation.
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