Dear editor,
They’re back. Black bears are out and about.
I saw my first one in a long time this morning… a skinny teenager probably not long out of hibernation and moving through the Seal Bay area. Meals of perhaps skunk cabbage (good for the kidneys after winter, I’ve heard), heading towards the west and soon the rivers and salmon.
It can’t be easy trying out its young bear ways on its own now, following historic routes that are increasingly busy and developed. Who knows what will happen next ? Exotic scents and new ‘food stuffs,’ roads to cross, barking dogs - there is a lot to learn from all sides, starting with the attractants that we humans unwittingly provide wildlife on our properties, and acknowledging that they are travelling through our region during predictable seasons: springtime migration from hibernation and fall harvest time of fruit trees, as the bruins return to their hibernation sites.
I believe that it is up to us to acknowledge, share and act responsibly in this wild space that we have chosen to live in, with them.
F. Cochran
Courtenay