It seems like this time of year always brings a barrage of bear attacks. Since the year 2000 there have been 2 deaths and 38 injuries from grizzly bears in British Columbia alone. There have been 2 deaths from bear attacks in BC since the year 2000. In the past week of this year there have already been a number of incidents.
A black bear attacked and killed an elder in the Xaxli’p First Nation whose remains were found last week near Lillooet, B.C. Bernice Evelyn Adolph was reported missing, police used dogs to find her remains on Thursday near her remote property. Here is a quote from the BC Coroners Service:
"After reviewing the autopsy results, evidence from the scene, and expertise and information provided by conservation officers, the B.C. Coroners Service was able to confirm a bear attack as the cause of her death," spokesman Mark Coleman said in a release on Tuesday. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/05/bc-woman-bear-autopsy.html
This incident happened on July 4th in Oweekeno BC, Canada. The survivor John Johnson was picking berries when a grizzly protecting her 2 cubs attacked the man. John walked 1.5km’s to his friends house where he was helped to the hospital. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/06/bc-grizzly-conservation-officers.html http://www.theprovince.com/technology/just+been+mauled+grizzly/5055950/story.html
On July 6th Scott Smith was jogging on a trail in North Vancouver up Mount Seymour. Scott, while on his regular run turned around and saw a bear running after him. Scott ran as fast as he could but could not out run it. Luckily there were dogs being walked by a dog walker and they scared off the bear. Conservation Officers were informed and the bear was shot as it was to acclimated and aggressive to humans. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/06/bc-north-vancouver-bears.html
The year before I harvested my trophy grizzly bear in Bella Coola, British Columbia there was a man named Brent Case who was attacked in the same area. A bear was destroyed after the attack but they were unsure if it was the same one. There is a possibility that I harvested the bear that attacked him a year later. Here is the story http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/16/bc-bear-mauls-man.html
It seems that bear encounters are definately on the rise as we increase our habitat while decrease theirs. The other problem in BC is that many people are against hunting and not enough bears are being hunted so they lose their fear of humans. It is unfortunate that they end up attacking people and then are killed by Officers. If more bears were hunted there would be less of a chance of being attacked as their fear of humans would be re-instilled. The following is a video clip showing an example of bears living in our urban areas: http://youtu.be/fmihiIdzgxY