On Vancouver Island, a ferry ride from Vancouver and a few hours south of Tofino, there’s a tiny little town called Lake Cowichan. There are a lot of animals cruising around the place — elk, bears, deer, and the occasional cougar, but they generally stay outdoors. But one black bear in particular decided to switch it up and hit a local gas station for gummy bears.
I’m lucky enough to call Lake Cowichan home. In the fall, our yard is full of elk nearly every morning. I wage a war with a bear that breaks into our shed on a weekly basis, strewing our garbage all over the driveway. They’re just black bears, thankfully, so they’re generally pretty skittish and hit the road as soon as you holler at them, but they’re pretty confident, especially when the leaves begin to change. They’re trying to fatten up for the coming winter, and garbage cans are a far easier way to get a meal than standing in the river hoping for a salmon.
There are a lot of animals here. Like this guy, who was in my backyard this morning. Photo: Haro
Tipton’s is a pretty regular stop for many of the residents in Lake Cowichan. It’s a plain-Jane little place; gas, snacks, a little smoker’s pit build from logs, etc, and the occasional animal sighting isn’t uncommon. But, like I said, those sightings are usually through the window looking out. But when Jay deGoesbriand, one of the proprietors of Tipton’s, opened the doors on Monday morning and poured himself a coffee, he didn’t expect the first customer to be a black bear. The bear didn’t take much — just a pack of gummy bears — but it was an unusual way to start the day, to say the least. After the bear chose his candy, he ambled out the door again. Without paying, of course.
“Mr. Bear then went out in the parking lot and ate it,” Jay, who was drinking coffee behind the counter at the time, told the CBC. The bear, like most of the bears around town, wasn’t aggressive.
“I thought it was so cool,” Karen deGoesbriand said. “Obviously [the bear] has a sweet tooth.”
It’s been a big year for bears. I see them a few times a week, bumbling their way around, ignoring the barking dogs while they’re on their search for food. The residents are pretty used to seeing them, but the spike in sightings has caused a few more calls to the B.C. Conservation Officer Service (COS). According to the COS, there have been 5,963 calls about black bears, nearly double the previous high of 2,366 calls in 2011.
There are a few reasons for the increase, including a drought that affected the usual glut of blackberries in the area and other food sources, so the bears are forced to head into town to find extra calories. Unfortunately, once a bear figures out that garbage is an easy way to eat, that often spells disaster.
“They can’t be rehabilitated or relocated,” a rep from the COS explained, “making the risk to public safety simply too great.” Interestingly, many people in Lake Cowichan simply don’t call the COS when they see a bear because it could mean that the bear will be euthanized. No word on what happened to Tipton’s bear, but it’s likely it’ll be seen shuffling around town in the near future. And hopefully, for its sake, it stays under the radar a little more.
