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Not just a Newmarket issue, early spring could see more bears wandering into Northern cities

THUNDER BAY – If a bear wanders through an Atikokan backyard, the news isn’t likely to spread beyond that neighbourhood.
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(ThinkStock Photograph)

THUNDER BAY – If a bear wanders through an Atikokan backyard, the news isn’t likely to spread beyond that neighbourhood.

If a bear is spotted somewhere near Newmarket, a community situated north of Toronto, people lose their minds and national headlines are made.

“Nuisance wildlife encounters are very much the norm, they’re very common in the north,” said John Kaplanis executive director of the Northwestern Ontario Sportsmen’s Alliance Tuesday, the day after the Newmarket bear became one of the bigger stories across Ontario news outlets.

“In the south it’s a very infrequent activity so there’s almost a Walt Disney reaction by certain people in the south where they look at animals as cute, cuddly creatures. It just doesn’t always play out that way in reality and sometimes these animals pose a risk to the public.”

The Newmarket bear was eventually cornered into a backyard and chased up a tree before it was shot by police officers once it climbed down.

It was the second bear sighting in that neighbourhood in as many days.

While that is a novelty in the Greater Toronto Area, an earlier start to spring is resulting in bear encounters in Northwestern Ontario.

“The black bears are very active right now, earlier than they were last year. We’re seeing a lot more black bears on the broader landscape and we’re hearing anecdotally people running into black bears and having problems with them in their yards,” Kaplanis said.

“I think things are poised this year to be perhaps a higher level of nuisance activity for black bears and that will hinge on food availability.”

If anything, Kaplanis hopes the incident will open the eyes of some lawmakers about the potential dangers of bears and have an impact whenever measures to control populations are discussed.

“Tools such as the spring bear hunt would help in reducing nuisance bear activity. We’ve always believed that in the North,” he said.

“I think northerners understand that and hopefully politicans in the south will recognize that in the future when the spring bear hunt topic does come up for discussion of reinstatement.”

The Ministry of Natural Resources has been lambasted by the Toronto media, with many claiming a slow response time left York Regional Police with no option but to shoot the bear.

The debate carried over into Queen’s Park on Tuesday, where Natural Resources and Forestry Minister Bill Mauro was grilled over the response.

Kaplanis believes the uproar is taking things too far.

“We view it as a huge overreaction by those southern Ontario residents who really don’t understand black bears pose a dangerous risk to the public when they appear in our urban centres,” he said.

“It’s unfortunate the way the media is playing it out. I think the (MNRF) is not to blame in this case. Certainly their reaction time to the bear incident in Newmarket doesn’t account for the media reaction.”

 





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