Visits were close together, but these two weren’t bad news bears

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This article was published 30/05/2024 (496 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They didn’t come into the city looking for trouble and were escorted out without incident, so Winnipeggers ought to just grin and bear it.

The two medium-sized ursine visitors in nine days — separately finding temporary lodging in a Wildwood tree nine days ago, and in one along the Seine River in Royalwood Wednesday — are likely not related, and somehow lost their way, a Manitoba Conservation officer said Thursday.

“I just see it as a chance event that we had two (sightings) so close to each other,” Sgt. Graeme Smith said, adding bears come and go at night by way of the riverbanks, often without anyone noticing. Once the sun comes up, it’s a different story.

The black bears most likely were spooked off their intended course by someone or something, Smith said.

“There’s certainly not bears living in the city,” he said.

The province has had three confirmed reports of bears inside the Perimeter Highway since January, which is on par with previous years, he said.

Stonewall-based Black Bear Rescue Manitoba owner Judy Stearns, who cares for orphaned cubs, said it has been a quiet year, thus far.

She works with Manitoba Conservation, and currently has five young residents.

May is the most common month for urban sightings, she said.

“We’ve got so many rivers that they can follow in; it’s a bit of a sidewalk for wildlife,” she said

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca