Hikers in Canada watched as a black beat raided their campsite and easily bypassed the pulley system keeping their backpacks well above the ground. The group hid in a shelter and recorded the animal as it climbed one of the trees being used to support a collection of bear bags and backpacks on a line.
In the clip, which you can watch below, the bear plucks a bag of food from the line, dashes down the tree, and escapes with its prize.
@ksr8282 ♬ In Essence - Ka$tro
As Daily Hive reports, the incident took place at Garibaldi Provincial Park in British Columbia. BC Parks recommends using bear canisters to protect food if possible, and if none are available, using a rope system that keeps bags at least four meters off the ground, and three meters from the nearest tree. In the video, the bags appear to be high enough, but are too close to the branches and well within the reach of a determined animal.
Although nobody was harmed this time, bear habituation and food conditioning are serious problems that can be dangerous for both animals and people. If a wild animal is able to access high-calorie human food once, it's likely to seek it out again in future, which increases the chances of coming into close contact with people.
According to CBC, BC conservation officers decided that the bear in the video showed "behaviour determined to be too much of a public safety risk," and decided to euthanize the animal. This wasn't the first time this particular animal had raided a food cache at the campground, and it had shown minimal fear of people.
"Putting down any bear is an unfortunate outcome that we work so hard to prevent," said the province's environment ministry in a statement. "Bears that are conditioned to human food sources are not candidates for relocation or rehabilitation, due to the risk to public safety."
- What to do if you meet a bear: staying safe on the trails and at camp
