— from Sheriff Ron Krebs —
On Saturday the 27th of May Orcas Island received a new visitor, a black bear who it appears as though swam to Orcas Island from Lummi Island. We immediately contacted the Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). Since then we have been in constant contact with them regarding the bear. Right now we are in the process of getting a bear trap to the island to attempt to safely apprehend it.
For the time being, the bear seems to be getting into garbage cans and sheds. We ask that you please try to keep your garbage locked up and not try to feed him.
Please continue to call in on our business line at 378-4151 for any sightings. This helps us track him and it is our hope we can safely apprehend him and the WDFW can relocate him to a more suitable place in the Cascade Mountains.
Why does s/he have to be apprehended? Can’t we vote on this? The bear hasn’t done anything wrong. Why is it destined to be deported? Can’t we co-exist? Humans are much more dangerous than bears :,(
I’m not sure that “apprehend” is the direction to take. Here on Orcas, we have a serious overpopulation of deer — primarily because we have no deer predators (including human hunters) on the island. Natural ecological balance includes predators as well as herbivores — keeping both populations in a reasonable balance. Although bears are omnivorous (eating berries as well as animal prey), their role as carnivores can play a critical role in controlling overpopulation of our deer. Please let the bear play a natural role in our natural ecosystem. Leave him/her alone to be part of the system within Moran State Park. PS: bears don’t like to eat people. They’d rather go for berries or deer.
I agree with Barbara, leave the bear alone. A black bear has more to fear from you and me than we do it. A mammalogy professor of mine who studied grizzlies every summer in Montana, would come back to his camp every afternoon and find it ransacked by a bear. Eventually he came upon the bear, a black bear like the one on Orcas, ran after it and chased it up a tree, where it stayed for hours. I’ve lived on this island for 28 years and this is the first time I’m aware of a bear being here. I’d really like it to stay for awhile … embrace our wildness.
Love the compassion of these comments and frankly couldn’t agree more.. who possesses the right or rights to exist here.
Maybe we can even learn something from this guest..
If the bear stays on Orcas it will be it’s death sentence. Black bears need lots of room. They are also members of the Porcine family which make them very intelligent and therefore cunning. They also have an incredible sense of smell.
Campers at the park like to cook out. They also leave food out and even intentionally feed the deer and birds.(as do some of the locals!) It will not take long at all for this bear to learn where his easy meals are. And with that comes his desensitization of fear to humans.
Unlike cats who sometimes hunt for sport, bear won’t hunt/eat deer if there is an easier meal.
So if you REALLY love the bear, let him/her go!
I agree with Maggie. It is good to have compassion, but we really do need to consider what is best for the bear. Also, if it is the only bear on the island, where is its companionship of like creatures? ….and Moran State Park will certainly not be the same.
Bears are in the Porcine family? Hate to be picky, but porcine refers to pigs or pig-like behavior — more related to overeating , as in “pigging out”. Bears belong to the family Ursidae, subfamily Ursinae — so they are “ursine” or “bear-like”. The name of the bear family comes from the Latin word for bear — as in Ursa Major. Yes, they can be a nuisance in camp grounds if people leave food out. That’s what “bear boxes” are for. In fact a number of National Parks require campers to have one. Maybe that might a good idea at Moran? In the meantime, check out REI’s “Bear Canister Basics” and leave the bear alone.
Barbara,
I certainly stand to be corrected. My father told me they were in the pig family and I have believed him all these years. Sorry!
But I stand by the rest of my story. I have been hiking and camping in the National Forest and we used a bear box. Not everyone does. Meanwhile, the bears get desensitized and once they do many have had to be euthanized. You may want to research this a bit.
Bear boxes in Moran? REALLY? But I guess with all the money the State parks have laying around, it shouldn’t be a problem!
It’s the CAMPERS not the park that need to purchase bear boxes. REI has them starting at $17. Given the price of tents and sleeping bags, this is a bargain But, yeah, you could go for more $$ — or even just invest in a small cooler with a rope timing it shut. The point is that the campers should accommodate bear behavior — not “apprehend” (“euthanize”) bears for human errors.
I would expect that many of the campers coming to Orcas to camp are not going to use a bear box no matter how inexpensive they are.
But even if they ALL did, it is not going to stop the bear from looking for food elsewhere. It is what bears do.
This poor bear is either lost or hungry or both.(have you not wondered why he left where he did in the first place?)
Orcas is too populated to accommodate what the bear requires. And then he/she will become unafraid of people in it’s quest for food. Or it is accidently cornered by someone and survival mode to defend itself kicks in. And the more desensitized it gets, the more bold it will get. And then it will die. How very sad when it all could have been prevented.