Tag: Whistler

Bear follows hiker for nearly 4 minutes after sniffing her leg

A woman was hiking in Whistler when a bear forced her to walk backwards down a paved trail as it followed close behind, video footage shows.

Jennifer Pierce was hiking in a forested area of Whistler, British Columbia, earlier this month when a bear forced her to walk backwards down the paved trail as it followed her from an uncomfortably close distance.

“Before I got my phone out, he came right up to me and sniffed my leg,” Pierce wrote on a Facebook post.

Pierce said it was “3 minutes, 50 seconds of walking backwards yelling for help and asking for Mr. fluffy bear to go away. All I could think was…this is going to hurt. Where is his Mum?”

Eventually the bear wandered off.

“That was too close for comfort,” Pierce says at the end of the video. “Bye bear.”

Local expert Michael Allen, who has studied black bears at Whistler since 1994, stated last year that he has counted a minimum of 48 black bears in Whistler. He said he’s never seen a grizzly bear, though he heard of sightings in Callaghan and Rainbow valleys.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Man pursued by bear forced to use bear spray (video)

The Resort Municipality of Whistler offers tips on its website about how to avoid a bear encounter, stating, “Bears and humans love the same habitats. There is a good chance you may encounter a bear in your backyard or on the trails in Whistler. Being aware and prepared can help prevent potentially dangerous situations for humans and bears.”

Woman fined $60,000 for feeding bears in ‘precedent-setting’ case

A resident of Whistler, Canada, has been fined $60,000 for attracting and feeding produce to bears throughout the summer of 2018.

A resident of Whistler, Canada, has been fined $60,000 for attracting and feeding bears throughout the 2018 summer.

The penalty levied against Zuzana Stevikova, who was sentenced last week in North Vancouver Provincial Court, is the highest imposed under the Wildlife Act in British Columbia.

Three bears that routinely visited the area were euthanized because they had become habituated as a result of illegal feeding and posed a safety threat.

ALSO ON FTW OUTDOORS: Massive grizzly bear charges within feet of trail-cam; ‘Look at those claws!’

According to a Conservation Officer Services news release, the agency launched an investigation in July 2018 after receiving an anonymous tip. Weekly purchases by Stevikova included up to 10 cases of apples, 50 pounds of carrots and 15 cases of eggs, according to the COS.

Visiting black bears exhibited no fear of humans and had become so conditioned to non-natural food that they were deemed ineligible for rehabilitation or relocation.

“The primary concern of the COS is public safety,” COS Sgt. Simon Gravel stated in the news release. “Illegally feeding or placing attractants to lure dangerous wildlife, such as bears, is an extremely dangerous activity. Once bears learn to associate humans with food, it creates a public safety risk.”

Because of the substantial penalty – most of the $60,000 will benefit the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation – the case was described as “precedent setting.”

–Black bear images are generic

Police foil quarantined snowboarder’s plan to ride early

A snowboarder from the U.S. was fined $1,150 after cutting his 14-day quarantine in Canada short to try to hit the slopes at Whistler Blackcomb resort.

A snowboarder from the U.S. was fined $1,150 after cutting his 14-day quarantine in Canada short to try to hit the slopes at Whistler Blackcomb.

The plan might have worked but the man was pulled over last Monday as he neared the British Columbia resort for driving with expired license-plate tags.

According to CBC, the police officer contacted the Canada Border Services Agency and learned that the unidentified man still had two days left on his quarantine order.

“They had chosen to leave their home in North Vancouver and were attempting to go up to Whistler to do some snowboarding a bit early,” Kevin Goodmurphy, a CBSA spokesman, told CBC. “It’s all risky behavior. There are quarantine rules in place for a reason … and we take it seriously,”

The man was ordered back to the home to continue his quarantine.

Whistler Blackcomb has opened for 2020-21 under a reservations system designed to limit access and allow for social distancing. Other measures designed to stop the spread of COVID-19 also are in place.

–Snowboarding image is generic