Pair of bears killed on area highways

Craig Douce RMO photo

Volker Stevin workers Ed Cardinal (foreground) and Mike Howard remove the body of an adult black bear, #2238, killed by an eastbound motorist on the Trans-Canada Highway near Harvie Heights.

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Two more bears are dead after being struck by vehicles on area highways.

Kananaskis conservation officers were called out to Highway 40 on Oct. 6 after one of their telemetry volunteers noticed that a bear’s transmitter was no longer moving.

The male grizzly was found in the bush about 600 metres off Highway 40, between the Elbow Pass parking area and Highwood Pass. The young male bear was just fitted with an ear transmitter this spring when it was travelling with its mother and a sibling. This summer, the young male separated from his mother and was responding well to conditioning, said Randy Axani, Kananaskis District Conservation Officer.

Highway 40 has been the site for a higher than normal amount of bear deaths this season. “This has not been a great year,” said Axani. Three bears, including a young blonde grizzly and a black bear, have now been hit and killed by vehicles this year. Only one driver called conservation officers and reported hitting a bear.

“What’s disappointing on this last bear is that we never had a report and this bear sustained a lot of trauma and managed to drag itself into the bush and die of substantial injuries. There’s no doubt that whoever hit this bear just kept going,” said Axani.

An adult black bear was also hit and killed on the Trans-Canada Highway between Harvie Heights and Canmore sometime on Monday, (Oct. 11) or early Tuesday, (Oct. 12) morning.

Conservation officers were notified on Tuesday of a dead bear by the side of the highway. The large black bear had an ear transmitter that had stopped working and was only known as number 2238, said Dave Dickson, Fish and Wildlife Officer. “It was not a problem bear,” said Dickson.

If you witness a vehicle hitting an animal, or see a dead or injured animal beside a road, call 403-591-7755.