A black bear seen wandering through downtown Langley on Sunday was captured by conservation officers after it walked into an residential building’s back yard.
Multiple social media posts tracked the movement of the female bear, who was seen walking near near the Home Depot hardware store, a motel, and the Willowbrook shopping centre before she was tranquilized in a building’s visitor parking, around 11:30 a.m.
Resident Allie Wilkinson said when her husband Matthew told there was a bear in their back yard, she had trouble believing it.
“We’re kitty-corner to Willowbrook mall,” Wilkinson noted.
“He said they caught a bear back there, and I thought for sure he was joking. I was like, he must mean a big cute German Shepherd out there, or something.
Then she looked down from their balcony.
“He literally meant bear. It was a very exciting day. It’s obviously scary to think if I was out back with my dog, I might have had a little bit of a panic.”
She observed none of the dogs in the complex made a sound when the bear came into the back yard.
It was also a little unnerving for Wilkinson when a neighbour asked a conservation officer if the bear could have climbed up into the upper floors of the building and was told “probably not.”
Wilkinson recorded the capture on video.
There were no reports of any injuries.
Based on overheard comments by the conservation officers, it appeared the bear had been previously tagged and relocated at least once before.
If relocation is unsuccessful, the officers at the scene indicated it was possible the bear might have to be euthanized.
Wilkinson is hoping it doesn’t come to that.
“I actually just feel kind of bad for her,” Wilkinson commented. “I mean, she was just looking for somewhere to go, for something to eat.”
“If it’s true that they end up relocating her and she comes back and they have to euthanize her, it just seems so sad because watching the videos, she was just wandering through the parking lot, coming in the backyard. She was just doing bear things.”
Earlier in the day, Jeff Barrett took some pictures when he saw the bear heading for Willowbrook shopping centre.
“I was just standing in the Popeye’s parking lot waiting for them to open for their customer appreciation sale [and I] looked over, and there he was, walking up through the parking lot of Superstore and walked past me across to the RBC in the Willowbrook lot,” Barrett told the Langley Advance Times.
Langley Advance Times has reached to the Conservation Officer Service and Langley RCMP for more information.
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