Black bear forces Revelstoke resident out of plum tree

There is no shortage of bear stories this year in Revelstoke. The killing of nine bears a few weeks ago garnered international media attention, for example. The killings led to a protest in downtown Revelstoke.

Since then, there have been many anecdotal stories of a bear sightings — it seems like one in twenty Facebook posts from Revelstoke residents in the past few weeks has been a photo or video of black bear sightings.

Personally, I’ve counted over a dozen black bear encounters while hiking and mountain biking around Revelstoke this season, and that’s not counting ones I’ve seen while driving. The night before last, one ripped down my neighbour’s fence gate in the early hours of the morning. I went out with a flashlight to shoo it off.

I was standing right next to the car, and didn’t notice this bear walk right up to me. Photo: Aaron Orlando/Revelstoke Mountaineer

Just today, I was riding my bike back from taking a photo of the accident on the Big Eddy Bridge. I stopped near the Revelstoke post office to answer a text. A moment later, a fire truck, which was also returning from the crash, sounded its horn. One of the firefighters called out to me to warn me. I had been staring in my phone, oblivious to the bear that walked right near me, and was standing on a lawn about 30 feet away.

With so much bear activity, was it only a matter of time before we had a slapstick incident?

A few hours later, at around 4 p.m. on Saturday, I stopped to get gas at the Esso station. There was a crowd gathered at the edge of the lot, including visitors snapping photos.

A black bear — maybe the one I saw earlier in the day — was feasting in a plum tree. Beside the tree there was a ladder with a cardboard box on the top. The resident, who was standing across the street, told me that she was picking plums when a bear came along. The bear climbed the tree and began eating the plums, forcing her to retreat to a safe distance.

As we watched the bear dine, she worried the bear would get into the half-full box of plums atop the ladder, but it never did. It soon left, and climbed up into a nearby cedar tree, where I last saw it hanging out on a low branch.

Anyway, it’s another reminder that it’s a serious bear season this year. Bear experts warn us that bears get more desperate, aggressive and hungry this time of year, as they try to fatten up in preparation for hibernation.

This bear wandering right across the street from my home earned me a hat-trick for Saturday bear sightings. Photo: Aaron Orlando/Revelstoke Mountaineer

Please check out the  Revelstoke Bear Aware website for lots of resources and information on how to better co-exist with bears, such as volunteering to help others glean fruit, learning how to better manage your fruit trees, making sure your garbage is secure, and lots of other steps.

(Note: as I was typing the last paragraph, my partner left to walk the dog, and returned right away. She told me there was a big black bear right across the street. It was my third sighting of the day.)