Bear in pear tree
Indeed, people in the area say that ‘Pear Bear’ has been living in that pear tree outside the city of Chilliwack for weeks and folks often stand below the tree and watch the bear a bit before moving on. The bear cub is about a year old, its sex undetermined, and it no longer appears to be with Mom, who was seen there but comes around no longer.
It just showed up one day, sitting in the tree and eating pears. CTV News quoted local Rebecca Van Oosteron, who said the baby bruin appear to be “in paradise up there, eating the pears all day.”
No one is complaining about it living there as it appears afraid of humans and hasn’t posed any threat; black bears rarely attack people without grave provocation (e.g. a mother protecting her cubs).
Conservation officers were called but to date they’ve not done much. They say it is too high up to bring safely down with a tranquillizer gun and even though a school is nearby given its fear of humans they, too, are not concerned about it attacking anyone.
Bear hibernation
Some have said they’ve seen the bear cub come down at night and gather up and gobble pears that had fallen to the ground. If that is so, then the conservation officers appear to be fine with leaving it in its home rather than capturing it when it’s down from the tree and relocating it.
Or for now they are.
The officers have set up a trap nearby to the tree, and when it gets around to taking the bait, they will indeed relocate Pear Bear to an area where he or she can hibernate for the winter. The first time food was placed into the trap it was gone by the next day. However, Pear Bear was still in the tree.
Eventually they’ll resort to coaxing it down, they said.
