On a bright morning in early July, Lucy Pecile was setting out children’s lunch boxes on a picnic table at Forest Grove Park in North Burnaby.
An unfamiliar man approached her with determination and inquired if she had seen the large black bear resting in a sunny area of grass behind a bus stop bench, mere meters from where the children she was supervising were playing.
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Black bear killed after being recorded stealing picnics in Burnaby, B.C.
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Trap set for picnic-stealing black bear in Burnaby following viral video
Without hesitation, Pecile shouted to alert the children about the bear.
“When the bear heard us calling the kids, along with the noise of the children rushing toward us, it got up and started walking in our direction,” she recounted. “It wasn’t in a rush. It moved casually… seemed unbothered by our presence.”
Lucy Pecile, a caregiver in Burnaby, B.C., acted quickly to remove children from the park when a bear was nearby. (Martin Diotte/CBC)
Pecile and another caregiver rounded up the eight children, who had been trained to follow directions and hold onto the stroller in case of a bear sighting, and exited the park, moving away from the bear, which immediately began to help itself to the lunches left unattended on the picnic table.
Footage of the situation quickly circulated on a community Facebook page, igniting a heated discussion: some voiced concerns about the bear’s actions and the safety of the children, while others highlighted that the area is bear territory and people should act in ways that protect bears, according to Nicole Gladish, whose four-year-old was present during the bear encounter.
This video, posted to a community Facebook page earlier this month, captures a black bear resting in the grass near a picnic table at Forest Grove Park in Burnaby, B.C., while children played in proximity. The incident sparked discussion about public safety and appropriate behavior in bear-inhabited areas.
This is a frequent topic of discussion in neighborhoods adjacent to bear habitats — should residents inform the B.C. Conservation Officer Service about a bear seeking human food sources like garbage or children’s lunch boxes?
Some people discourage reporting such occurrences, fearing it could lead to the bear’s death, Gladish states.
“It always seems to turn into a blame game where nothing gets resolved.”
Gladish did reach out to Conservation and inquired about whether relocating “nuisance bears” — those that have lost their fear of humans and adapted to human food sources — could be a viable solution.
She was informed that studies have shown relocation to be ineffective.
Nicole Gladish’s four-year-old was present when the bear was in the park. (Martin Diotte/CBC)
Gladish, who is a genetic epidemiology researcher at Stanford University, decided to investigate further.
The articles she discovered indicated that relocating adult bears aged four and older is usually unsuccessful, as they often return to their original locations and resume problematic behaviors.
Conversely, juvenile bears aged one to three, who have not yet established a home territory, tend to have a different outcome. This is particularly true for males, although one study found age to be a more significant factor than sex.
A 2009 Ontario study indicated that male bears aged two or three were unlikely to return to the area from which they were relocated if moved 30 to 64 kilometers away.
“Relocation could serve as a valuable management strategy for addressing conflicts involving juvenile animals. Juvenile males typically constitute the majority of nuisance bears and are less likely to return to the capture area or engage in future nuisance incidents,” the authors stated.
A sign warning of bear sightings in Burnaby’s Forest Grove Park. (Martin Diotte/CBC)
Gladish learned that this finding was not unique.
“The agreement on relocating subadult bears and the effectiveness of this approach is so strong that it is included in textbooks, which indicates it’s well established,” she remarked.
She suggested a pilot program targeting high-conflict zones where juvenile black bears could be relocated instead of euthanized.
If effective, this could preserve bear lives and potentially lead to more consistent reporting if people knew there was a non-lethal option, Gladish adds.
In contrast, the provincial government stated in a release that their experiences in B.C. suggest that relocating bears merely shifts the issue elsewhere.
Neither the Ministry of Environment and Climate Solutions, which supervises the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, nor the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, which manages wildlife policy, provided on-camera responses to inquiries despite multiple requests for interviews.
A bear rummaging through garbage in a dumpster in the Forest Grove neighborhood of Burnaby. The bear’s mother was nearby, and both have been spotted in the area multiple times since. (John Verster)
“Relocating all young male bears reported in conflict with humans would not be a sustainable approach for various reasons,” stated an emailed response attributed to the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.
“When a relocated bear does not return to its capture site, it only partially indicates success. Survival rates for bears post-translocation are frequently lower than those of resident bears, and the likelihood of the bear encountering conflict in a different area is also greater.”
The province did not reply to a request for peer-reviewed studies to back its policy.
What the policy indicates
The response to a report of a black bear in a residential area depends on the bear’s actions, according to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Solutions, as stated in an email.
In some cases, guidance on effectively securing attractants such as garbage or bird feeders may suffice.
“Over time, the most effective method to prevent human-bear conflicts and reduce subsequent bear fatalities is to manage attractants,” the Ministry of Water, Lands and Resource Sustainability noted.
A live bear trap in Burnaby. (Rafferty Baker/CBC)
The province’s guidelines indicate that relocation will be considered “only in a few, limited circumstances.”
“Bears that have lost their fear of humans or are conditioned to unnatural food sources are not candidates for relocation or rehabilitation — the risk to public safety is simply too significant,” stated the Ministry of Environment and Climate Solutions.
Neither ministry responded to an inquiry regarding whether the policy is uniformly applicable to all bears, regardless of age.
Another document states that “relocations for the management of wildlife that come into conflict with humans … should not require the Province to incur financial costs for the translocation or relocation.”
Neither ministry addressed the question of whether cost savings contribute to the rationale behind the minimal relocation policy, stating only that the province incurs expenses when black bears are moved.
In the meantime, Gladish’s children continue to visit the park nearly every day. She fears what might occur if a bear were to surprise her kids, or vice versa.
“Sadly, bears are large and children are small. If a real conflict were to occur, it wouldn’t end well for my kids.”
