A mother bear and two cubs known for dining on apples and garbage in West Vancouver backyards have been tranquilized and relocated for the second time in three weeks.
Conservation officers had already tranquilized the trio and dropped them off in a remote area of Hollyburn Mountain in late October. But they were back in Sentinel Hill and Ambleside less than a week later.
West Vancouver police and conservation officers met "Mama and the kids" in the 2400-block of Palmerston Ave. on Monday afternoon, according to Const. Jeff Palmer, West Vancouver police spokesman.
Conservation officers "managed to get them treed and darted and helped carry them off to the traps," Palmer said.
From there, the bears were taken up to Squamish where they were handed off to another conservation officer who took them to a "very undeveloped" area in the Squamish Valley.
"The hope is that they're going to go into hibernation this time of year and they'll stay there for the next few months," said conservation officer Ashley Page.
But Page said, it is highly likely the bears will be back.
"Short distance relocation and longdistances relocations.. . do not generally work for a sow and cubs," she said. "Generally, we see them coming back to developed areas."
Conservation officers must evaluate, every time they pick up a bear for relocation, whether it is worth the risk of keeping them alive.
"There's no policy in terms of three strikes and you're out. It definitely factors into our decisionmaking, the fact that it's failed twice before," she said.
Residents who don't want to see the bears killed need to do a better job of keeping their yards and garages free of anything the bears might sniff out, Page and Palmer agreed.
