Aggressive grizzly bears have southern Alberta family on edge

A southern Alberta father is still on edge three days after an aggressive encounter with three grizzly bears in the family's rural backyard.

"We were laying on the horn to get them out of the yard because I don't want grizzly bears in the yard," Keith Lang told CBC News Sunday.

"There was no fear in those bears."

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The Thursday evening encounter took place on his property near Pincher Creek, a town about 200 kilometres south of Calgary.

"I was out in the field doing some fencing and I came back to the yard in the truck at about 6:30 p.m.I turned on the water to fill a trough for some cattle and horsesand, when I did so, I looked down the laneway from the house and I saw three grizzlies coming," Langsaid.

"I didn't think much of it.I figured they would make a wide berth around the place."

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The bears had other ideas.

"My wife said, 'Oh my God, they are already in the yard,'" Lang said.

"My daughter has got a couple of ducks in a pen next to the house. They eventually noticed the ducks and then they started going after the ducks," he said.

It's not the first time Lang has seen bears near his property, but something was different with this encounter.

• Watch the full video. WARNING: Coarse language.

Lang's daughter Kayla pulled out her phone and hit record.

"I've seen bears cruise through the yard in the middle of the day and once you spook them, usually they will run and get out of Dodge, so to speak," he said.

"These ones did not care whatsoever and they weren't going to be told what to do and they weren't going to leave, they were going to stick around. We made a pile of noise and I eventually drove that truck up to within about 10 feet of that bear before he left."

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Lang says his family hoped to scare the bears away, to ensure they didn't feel comfortable in his yard. He says he hates to think what could have happened with a family with small children.

"This time of year they are getting hungry and a little bolder and these ones were showing no fear," Lang said.

"It is a little unnerving, right? They are big animals capable of doing a lot of damage."

He said the province'sFish and Wildlife branch has offered some electric fencing for the duck pen.

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And the ducks?

"They are good a little excited, but they are good."

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