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Surveyors fend off grizzly protecting her young

Dogs and bear spray are being credited in helping a surveyor escape a grizzly bear attack north of Tatla Lake this week.

Dogs and bear spray are being credited in helping a surveyor escape a grizzly bear attack north of Tatla Lake this week.

Early Monday afternoon two surveyors, with their dogs nearby, were working on a cut block in the Chilanko area when a sow and two cubs appeared.

The sow aggressively approached one of the surveyors, coming within five feet of him, Sgt. Len Butler of the Conservation Officer Services said.

“She never bit, scratched or hit the surveyor, but was able to back him up quite a bit,” Butler explained, adding the other surveyor ran over with his dog to help.

The surveyor being attacked was able to fend the sow off with the help of the dogs and eventually with bear spray.

Butler praised the dogs as the heroes because they kept the cubs at bay and consistently challenged the sow.

“It was a defensive attack and a very intense encounter,” Butler said.  “The surveyor had some scrapes and bruises from hitting the ground and bushes  and was OK, but when we interviewed him Monday night he told us he will not be returning to work at the site.”

Butler confirmed the COS has no intention of trapping and removing the bears because in a remote setting it doesn’t make sense.

 

“It sounds like this sow and her cubs came through and the surveyors were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said.

 

 



Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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