Seems every year we have more encounters. These<br />bears are losing there habitat to human encroachment.This bear killed for food.<br /><br /><br />Monday, June 06, 2005<br /> <br />Isabelle Dube, a well-known competitive mountain biker, was killed by a grizzly bear Sunday afternoon on a popular hiking trail while jogging with two friends, shocking residents in this mountain community 90 kilometres west of Calgary.<br /><br />Fish and wildlife officers later shot and killed the grizzly, the same bear they had relocated from the area just eight days before.<br /><br />Dube, who competed in the TransRockies Challenge and was well-known in the cycling community, was jogging with her racing companion, Maria Hawkins, and another runner when they were attacked by the bear about 2 p.m.<br /><br />Dube's two jogging companions ran for help to nearby SilverTip Golf Course and were not harmed, said Cpl. Brad Freer of the Canmore RCMP. Police would not confirm the identity of the victim Sunday, but several friends said it was Dube.<br /><br />Cameron Baty, one of three mountain bikers who came upon the scene shortly after the bear attack, said the grizzly approached them over a fallen log but did not attack.<br /><br />"It behaved like it was guarding a kill," Baty said. He was upset the bear was the same grizzly removed from the area May 28.<br /><br />"I don't know the history of this bear, but if the bear was thought to pose a threat to the community, it should have been shot. I've been around bears most of my life and and in my opinion if a bear is scared away and comes back, you need to shoot it or something like this happens."<br /><br />Donna Babchishin, a spokesperson for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, confirmed the bear was the same 200-pound, four-year-old grizzly removed from the upper Cougar Creek area, a residential area east of SilverTip, just over a week ago.<br /><br />The grizzly had been wandering from Harvey Heights, west of Canmore, through the SilverTip Golf Course and into upper Cougar Creek where it was trapped May 27.<br /><br />The bear was relocated after approaching Canmore resident Niki Davison, who was photographing wildflowers.<br /><br />The bear was tranquilized, fitted with a radio collar and flown the following day by helicopter to the Carrot Creek area, a short distance inside the east boundary of Banff National Park.<br /><br />Babchishin said bears that have no previous aggressive behavior are commonly relocated within their home range.<br /><br />The bear was being monitored and had not moved from Carrot Creek until it moved into the SilverTip area about 1 p.m. Sunday, said Babchishin.<br /><br />"It's been a pretty overwhelming day, especially with our feelings of sympathy for the family," Babchishin said. "This is so very hard, particularly in a community like Canmore, where people are so close and live with this reality and the fear that this could happen. I think it will affect people deeply there."<br /><br />Brian Stevens, the clubhouse manager at SilverTip golf course in Canmore, said the club's maintenance crew scared the Grizzly off the 18th green after it was spotted at about 9:30 a.m.<br /><br />He said the bear was spooked and ran up into the tree line above the course.<br /><br />"We get them all the time," said Stevens specifically mentioning the 198-pound Grizzly, which was caught in a bear trap on May 27 after being spotted on the fifth fairway.<br /><br /><br />Canmore Mayor Ron Casey called it "a sad day" and said the attack will intensify debate around development in Canmore.<br /><br />In recent years, environmentalists have fought for wildlife corridors on the outskirts of the community of 13,000, where resort golf courses and million-dollar mountain chalets have expanded into what was once prime wildlife habitat.<br /><br />"If we want to try to cohabitate with wildlife, as sad as these occurrences are, they are also a fact of where we live," Casey sad.<br /><br />Baty said Canmore's strong environmental lobby has made it more difficult for recreational trail users.<br /><br />"The view in town is that bears have more rights than we do. As humans, we have a right to live here as well."<br /><br />Baty was cycling on the lower section of the Montane Traverse, about one kilometre west of SilverTip golf course, with friends Brent Rosvold and Ari Carriere when they came upon the bear, which was behind a fallen tree. The three Canmore residents retreated to the ninth fairway at SilverTip, where the victim's jogging companions had fled to safety.<br /><br />The trio and the women's companions directed RCMP and fish and wildlife officers to the site, following cautiously. A wildlife officer shot the bear.<br /><br />Dube was the first person killed by a bear in Alberta since 1998.<br /><br />Since 1992, there have been two deaths and 23 maulings by bears in Alberta.<br /><br />rremington@theherald<br /><br /><br /> http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=a49cd7e8-0c99-44f5-a496-21b5ba566eab
