Une femme tuée par un Grizzly en Alberta

[Animal 0]

Grizzly attack kills woman jogger
Bear was relocated days earlier

Robert Remington
Calgary Herald

Monday, June 06, 2005

Isabelle Dube, a well-known competitive mountain biker, was killed by a
grizzly bear Sunday afternoon on a popular hiking trail while jogging with
two friends, shocking residents in this mountain community 90 kilometres
west of Calgary.

Fish and wildlife officers later shot and killed the grizzly, the same bear
they had relocated from the area just eight days before.

Dube, who competed in the TransRockies Challenge and was well-known in the
cycling community, was jogging with her racing companion, Maria Hawkins, and
another runner when they were attacked by the bear about 2 p.m.

Dube's two jogging companions ran for help to nearby SilverTip Golf Course
and were not harmed, said Cpl. Brad Freer of the Canmore RCMP. Police would
not confirm the identity of the victim Sunday, but several friends said it
was Dube.

Cameron Baty, one of three mountain bikers who came upon the scene shortly
after the bear attack, said the grizzly approached them over a fallen log
but did not attack.

"It behaved like it was guarding a kill," Baty said. He was upset the bear
was the same grizzly removed from the area May 28.

"I don't know the history of this bear, but if the bear was thought to pose
a threat to the community, it should have been shot. I've been around bears
most of my life and and in my opinion if a bear is scared away and comes
back, you need to shoot it or something like this happens."

Donna Babchishin, a spokesperson for Alberta Sustainable Resource
Development, confirmed the bear was the same 200-pound, four-year-old
grizzly removed from the upper Cougar Creek area, a residential area east of
SilverTip, just over a week ago.

The grizzly had been wandering from Harvey Heights, west of Canmore, through
the SilverTip Golf Course and into upper Cougar Creek where it was trapped
May 27.

The bear was relocated after approaching Canmore resident Niki Davison, who
was photographing wildlfowers.

The bear was tranquilized, fitted with a radio collar and flown the
following day by helicopter to the Carrot Creek area, a short distance
inside the east boundary of Banff National Park.

Babchishin said bears that have no previous aggressive behaviour are
commonly relocated within their home range.

The bear was being monitored and had not moved from Carrot Creek until it
moved into the SilverTip area about 1 p.m. Sunday, said Babchishin.

"It's been a pretty overwhelming day, especially with our feelings of
sympathy for the family," Babchishin said. "This is so very hard,
particularly in a community like Canmore, where people are so close and live
with this reality and the fear that this could happen. I think it will
affect people deeply there."

Brian Stevens, the clubhouse manager at SilverTip golf course in Canmore,
said the club's maintenance crew scared the Grizzly off the 18th green after
it was spotted at about 9:30 a.m.

He said the bear was spooked and ran up into the treeline above the course.

"We get them all the time," said Stevens specifically mentioning the
198-pound Grizzly, which was caught in a bear trap on May 27 after being
spotted on the fifth fairway.

Canmore Mayor Ron Casey called it "a sad day" and said the attack will
intensify debate around development in Canmore.

In recent years, environmentalists have fought for wildlife corridors on the
outskirts of the community of 13,000, where resort golf courses and
million-dollar mountain chalets have expanded into what was once prime
wildlife habitat.

"If we want to try to cohabitate with wildlife, as sad as these occurrences
are, they are also a fact of where we live," Casey sad.

Baty said Canmore's strong environmental lobby has made it more difficult
for recreational trail users.

"The view in town is that bears have more rights than we do. As humans, we
have a right to live here as well."

Baty was cycling on the lower section of the Montane Traverse, about one
kilometre west of SilverTip golf course, with friends Brent Rosvold and Ari
Carriere when they came upon the bear, which was behind a fallen tree. The
three Canmore residents retreated to the ninth fairway at SilverTip, where
the victim's jogging companions had fled to safety.

The trio and the women's companions directed RCMP and fish and wildlife
officers to the site, following cautioulsy. A wildlife officer shot the
bear.

Dube was the first person killed by a bear in Alberta since 1998.

Since 1992, there have been two deaths and 23 maulings by bears in Alberta.

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

Ils n'ont pas arrêté d'en parler aux nouvelles, tout à l'heure, mais heureusement, cette fois, ce fût bien qualifié d'accident, "sur le territoire de l'ours... si quelqu'un entrait chez-vous sans frapper, vous auriez une réaction de défense...., ça n'est arrivé que 5 fois en 5 ans..., c'est exceptionnel..., il ne faut jamais monter dans un arbre pour tenter d'échapper à un ours..., il ne faut pas oublier non plus que l'ours est omnivore qui se nourrit parfois de jeunes cerfs et qu'il aura peut-être confondu avec un cerf...., quand on va dans un territoire fréquenté par des ours, il faut porter sur soi un xx.... (j'ai oublié le nom de cet objet qui fait du bruit comme un coup de feu)... Bref, cette fois, il n'y a pas eu de folie comme la dernière fois, mais on n'a pas encore entendu les chasseurs qui auront peut-être une autre version.

[Animal 0]

ça n'aidera sûrement pas la cause des ours de la Colombie-Britannique! Plusieurs assos demandent depuis des années de mettre un terme à sa chasse puisque les Grizzlis sont presqu'en voie d'extinction (de nombreux touristes européens sont tout heureux de ramener sa peau dans leur pays)!

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

C'est certain qu'ils prendront ceci en exemple, même si ça s'est passé ailleurs.

[Animal 0]

c'est pour ça qu'ils n'arrêtent pas d'en parler aux nouvelles... Les trappeux et les chasseux ne demandent que ça: une augmentation des quotas pour tuer encore + d'ours !