2 of 3 bears rescued from Banff washroom snuggle up in dens for winter

Two surviving black bears that were rescued last year after being found mysteriously locked in a public washroom in Banff National Park have snuggled up in separate dens for their first winter in the wild.

The trio of female cubs wasfoundlast April by a motorist at the roadside facility at the Vermilion Lakes turnout just west of the Banff townsite. The cubs spent last winter at theAspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Rosseau, Ont.,about 200 kilometres north of Toronto.

The bearswere released back into the park in July.

In August, one of the yearlings was eaten by a grizzly. But the other two bears have been thriving,wildlife ecologistJesse Whittingdonsaid.

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"Overall, this reintroduction has certainly been a success to date," Whittingdon said.

"Black bear yearlings typically have relatively high mortality rates, just naturally often around 30 per cent.And so we find that when you transfer animals into a new area especially if they have little experience with predators like wolves they face an even higher mortality rate. So we're very pleased that two of the three black bear females survived to the fall."

Whittingdonsaid he suspects the abundant buffaloberry crop this summer helped the yearlings thrive.

The bears were fitted with GPS collars after their release, which show one bear denned on Oct. 15 and the other on Nov. 5.

Animals split up

Whittingdon said it was surprising that immediately after they were released, the bears took off in different directions.

"As a wildlife ecologist, you'd love to know what these animals are thinking and why they travelled independently versus together," he said, adding that the bears chose overlapping home ranges. Theirden sites are about 10 kilometres from each other, meaningthey would have beenaware of each otherdespite choosing to part ways, he said.

He said the bears will likely emerge in late April or early May and head down to lower elevations to feed on grass and dandelions. Then later in the summer, they will probably head to higher elevations and really start to pack on the pounds before the next hibernation season, he said.

The largest concern with the bears was that they'd gravitate toward an area with more human contact and available food but that hasn't been an issue.

"They selected den sites that are up higher out of the valley bottoms where they're safer from predators like wolves, and we hope that they survivethrough the winter and become a natural part of our bear population come spring."

The GPS collars the bears are fitted with last approximately one year. After the batteriesrun out,the collars will remotely release. After that, Parks Canada will be able to track the bears through a system of remote cameras set up through the backcountry.

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