Bear shot at Hannam Park

Ken Johnston
Editor

Last Tuesday the first nuisance bear in several years wandered into Rainy River in search of food.
Bill Moody of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources said that this is the time of year that young bears, particularly males, are kicked out of the den to fend for themselves. "They start to wander at this time of year," said Moody.
The first sighting of the bear last Tuesday was reported to police in the early morning hours around 8th Street. By noon the bear had wandered over to Hannam Park and was treed by the Ontario Provincial Police.
A call into MNR yielded little help as they do not handle nuisance bear calls anymore. However Moody said that James O'Sullivan of Emo is licensed to tranquilize bears from Rainy River to Atikokan. He has taken a course to dart and transport the animal to a safe distance from town. However Moody noted it is nothing for a bear to wander 60 km back into an area looking for food.
If the police determine that the bear is a public safety issue they can then take action and that was exactly what happened at about 1 p.m. when the bear was shot from the tree.
As for reports that the food supply for bears is going to be bad this year, Moody could not confirm or deny them. He did note that there has only been a few calls to the MNR reporting problems with bears this year. In fact he said that most of them were only calls from people looking for ways to keep the bears away from their property. He noted there are problems in other parts of Northwestern Ontario but not here.
Moody noted that O'Sullivan handles all kinds of animal control and can be reached at 482-2269.