Bear survives without even a limp in crash that totals vehicle

He has been living in the Kananaskis area for many years, Paczkowski said.

His known home range includes Peter Lougheed and Spray Valley provincial parks and parts of the Stoney First Nation. He also moves through the Bow Valley around Canmore and occasionally enters the Banff townsite area.

It's not known whether Bear 164 has ever succeeded in breeding.

"We first captured him as we were trying to recapture a female grizzly bear and he was kind of courting her for several days. So he was kind of, you know, beside her and giving her the, you know, 'come on, baby.' Nuzzling and trying to get her to go into estrous and potentially breed," he said.

"And as we tried to capture her, we got him instead."

Paczkowski says there are approximately 50 to 55 grizzlies in the Kananaskis area, and about five or six have been collared.

"Kananaskis Country has a very stable population. We have a lot of bears that have are born and lived their whole natural lives into their 20s in Kananaskis Country, bred and contributed to the Alberta grizzly bear population," he said.

"And I think it's one of the success stories of grizzly bear recovery in Alberta."

Don't ignore trail closures due to bears, parks urge

Meanwhile, the province is getting tough on people who ignore bear closure areas in the Bow Valley. The closures are meant to allow the animals to take advantage of a bumper berry crop.

Yellow tape and large signs signal the areas that are closed, which includes some popular hiking and biking trails.

But provincial wildlife conflict biologist Jay Honeyman says not everyone is getting the message.

"We see people when we're in there checking and we get a lot of reports from the public," he said.

"And there are a couple of cameras up, monitoring wildlife and such, and we're finding peoples' pictures on the cameras actually … in the closure."

So far, provincial officials have issued four tickets for violating the wildlife act — which carries a $115 fine.

There are bear closures in effect in these areas as of noon on Friday:

Northwest end of Ghost public land-use zone in Ghost River Wilderness Area.
Hidden Trail, Coal Mine and Centennial Ridge Trail in Evan-Thomas Provincial Recreation Area.
Boulton Campground Manager's Site in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park.
Quarry Lake, Grassi Lakes, Powerline and areas between Rundle Canal and Three Sisters Golf Course.
Paved bike path from Elkwood Campground to Mt. Sarrail Campground in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park.
Valleyview Trail in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park.
The latest closure information can be found on the Alberta Environment and Parks site.

Bow Valley WildSmart spokesperson Nick de Ruyter knows people are getting frustrated because the closures have been in effect for more than a month. But he says the closures are for good reason.

"I think more people should get ticketed because hopefully that will help make people think twice about going into that area, because it's a safety risk to themselves and a safety risk to the bears," he said.

That's one tough-ass bear. I'm assuming it was a small passenger car that hit him. I've had friends hit (smaller) black bears including a glancing blow and all have had their cars destroyed. In all instances the bears got up and wandered off.

I'm intimately familiar with that whole area and used to live in the Ghost River area in the mid-1980s. A very popular region for outdoor activity. Lots of stupid tourists & Calgarians causing "Bear jams." Periodically some lulzworthy event occurs like people getting out of their cars & trying to stand next to and/or pet the bears only to get (predictably) mauled.

Like a boss

>>174638
I love getting mauled, predictably or otherwise.

PS: the Chinese tourists are especially good at abusing our wildlife.

>>175418
If there's one thing the chinaman has
it's utter disregard for the value of life, human or non-human
t. bearer of deplorable chinese jeans