Parks Canada is urging motorists to slow down and watch out for wildlife after three grizzly bears were hit and killed in Jasper and Yoho National Parks earlier this month. The agency said two bears – a female and a male – died on the Trans-Canada Highway through Yoho National Park in British Columbia on June 7 and 11. “We always expect the bears to come to the bottom of the valley in the spring, because it’s the first place to get green,” said David Laskin, a wildlife ecologist for Canada Parks on Lake Louise. “We have a lot of dandelions and green vegetation, so the bears usually go down and eat it and then disperse to the back country at higher altitudes. “This spring, it’s been a little late because we have a snowdrift hanging there. It keeps the bears low and they spend more time on the streets, which puts them at risk for longer.” A third grizzly bear was killed on Highway 16 last week in Jasper National Park. The female bear with a lion was hit late Thursday or early Friday morning by a transport truck about five miles east of Jasper town. The little one survived and appeared to be well on Friday, Parks Canada said in a press release last week. The agency estimates on its website that there are about 200 grizzly bears in Banff, Jasper, Yoho and Kootenay National Parks. They are referred to as a species of particular concern under federal law. Lashkin said it was difficult to deal with the grizzly bear deaths, especially of the five-year-old female bear in Yoho National Park. “The losses of any grizzly bear are enormous,” he said, “but a … breeding female is a big blow, because grizzly bears are slow to breed and are relatively rare in the landscape.” Parks Canada reduced the speed limit to 70 km / h from 90 km / h on a six-kilometer stretch of Highway 1 west of Lake Louise, Alta., And east of Field, BC, in Yoho National Park after a woman was killed. Grizzly. It dropped further to 50 km / h after hitting the second bear, Laskin said. “We had extra speed in the reduced speed zone,” he said. “Both the guards and the RCMP issued speeding tickets and also confiscated speeding vehicles.” Lashkin said there is also a no-stop zone on the same section of the highway. This Canadian Press report was first published on June 20, 2022.
