Famous B.C. bear shot dead by conservation officers.

[abc]

Famous B.C. bear shot dead by conservation officers

BY SEAN SULLIVAN, POSTMEDIA NEWS OCTOBER 24, 2011

Jeanie, the famous Whistler bear, with her three cubs born in 2009.

VANCOUVER — The most famous bear in Whistler, B.C., is dead after being
shot by a conservation officer.

Jeanie the black bear, known for a triangle-shaped patch of white fur on
her chest, a camera-friendly personality and an astonishing number of
cubs in her 20-some years at the ski resort community, was killed on
Friday after weeks of escalating conflicts.

"We've managed this bear for quite a long time, but the type conflict she
and her cub were engaging in most recently was definitely a threat to
public safety and beyond reasonable limits," Insp. Chris Doyle of the BC
Conservation Officer Service said.

Jeanie was shot after being caught in a trap and tranquillized, Doyle
said. Her cub has been sent to an orphaned wildlife rehabilitation centre
in Langley, B.C.

The bear's death has prompted a debate on Facebook, where a "Friends of
Jeanie the Bear" website has attracted hundreds of followers over the
years. Jeanie has been seen in and around Whistler for more than 20
years, according to the Get Bear Smart society.

"It is with deep, deep sadness that I must inform you that Jeanie has
been killed," led off a series of posts from heartbroken wildlife lovers.
"This is very very sad but probably inevitable. Jeanie will stay in our
mind," wrote Corinne Schevin.

"I cannot even express the sadness I felt in reading this post a few
(minutes) ago when we returned from a day trip," wrote Sky Babu. "I think
it is likely the powers that be had simply grown weary of dealing with
Jeanie and were no longer interested in other options."

Others pointed out that the much-watched Jeanie, whose fans tracked every
spotting of her on Facebook, was a healthy weight this season, despite a
few years of poor berry crops.

"This suggests that it was a bad habit rather than desperation," wrote
Danni Kinsman, "so this behaviour would have only continued or gotten
worse."

Jeanie's cub will join a number of other orphaned bears at Critter Care
Wildlife Society in Langley, including three cubs — Rose, Kira and
Kaymona — whose mother was euthanized after being caught eating from a
garbage bin near an elementary school.

The trap for Jeanie, a star of many Whister bear-watching excursions, was
set as a result of weeks of persistent, accelerating problem behaviour,
Doyle said.

In recent weeks she broke into the Roundhouse Lodge at the top of
Whistler Mountain and a restaurant in the village, and was seen
attempting to force her way into other buildings, he said. The bear also
bluff-charged employees in and around the restaurants.

"When bears become habituated they don't easily scare off," Doyle said.
"In the case of this bear, she was very comfortable around people.

"We really tried hard to keep that bear. It wasn't a decision we took
lightly, that's for sure."

Get Bear Smart had pleaded with the conservation officer service to
relocate the animal, even finding a temporary enclosure at another
wildlife shelter, according to its website. Both requests were denied.

Still, a long-distance move might not have worked anyway.

"It is unlikely that Jeanie would have survived it and even less likely
that the cub would have made it," the organization said. "They would have
almost certainly tried to come back to their home range. That's what
female bears do, and the odds are that they would have starved to death
on the way."