‘She came up like she owned the place’: Bear traps laid out in Glovertown | CBC News

A bear sighting in Glovertown is not a rare thing, the town’s mayor says. But this year, says Doug Churchill, is on another scale altogether. 

“They seem to be all over the community and according to reports on social media, they’re pretty much everywhere,” Churchill said.

“Generally, you know, there may be one or two a season, but this year it seems to be a larger number of bears.”

Glovertown resident Phil Riggs says he recently encountered a bear while having lunch with his wife.

“We looked out the window and sauntering up the road was this big bear,” Riggs said.

“I was a bit surprised when I seen the first one, although I had heard lots of reports about them around. But this is the first time that I had seen one when he came up here.”

Riggs told CBC News he was surprised to later see two additional cubs that were “sauntering” around the area. 

“Now, the big fella or the big girl, I should say, she came up like she owned the place,” he added.

The town contacted the provincial wildlife department, which has set traps in an attempt to catch the bears and relocate them further away from the town.

In a statement to CBC News ealier this week, the Department of Fisheries, Forestry, and Agriculture said they had captured and relocated one bear.

Additionally, they have set up two more traps in the area.

Churchill said while townspeople are concerned, there isn’t much panic.

He noted there is concern for small animals, as well as children playing in the town.

“It’s got to be a worry, you know, because, I mean, you don’t know when you’re going to encounter them,” Riggs said.

Churchill said the blame lies with ripe fruit that attracts the bears and garbage that is not stored in a proper manner.

He cautioned anyone against trying to get close to the bears for any reason, such as taking pictures.

“Hopefully, [wildlife officers will] be able to pick up a few of those bears and carry them somewhere else. I guess that’s the only thing we can hope for,” he said. 

“Other than that, just keep reminding the public that, you know, we have a responsibility, I guess, to try and curtail the food supply as much as we can so the beers don’t stay around any longer.”

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