1 bear killed and family of bears relocated in Yukon

Yukon conservation officers have been busy dealing with bears this summer, as they saya poor berry season has meant more of the animals are turning to trash to fill their bellies.

An injured black bear was seenknocking over garbage and compost bins looking for something to eat around Ponderosa Drive and Walnut Crescent in Whitehorse's Porter Creek neighbourhood on Tuesday.

Lue Maxwell lives in the area and said she saw the bear go behind a house two doors down fromhers and then wander onto her property.

"Maybe 15 seconds later I looked around and the bear was at my gate at my backyard," she said. "[I] got in the car and I rolled up the window and then I honked the horn to scare the bear off."

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Maxwell said the bear was limping and it continued to graze at garbage cans, asresidents tried to scare it away.

After she alerted Yukon conservation officers, they cornered the bear and shot it.

Officer DavidBakicasaid they had no choice but to kill the bear and that officers had previously attempted to capture it in the early morning hours.

"The officer chased the bear several times out of yards and into greenbelts and it even ended going into the children's park there on Pine Street," he said.

"Luckily it was at twoin the morning when it did this so there wasn't likely to be anybody in there, those circumstances can certainly change when it's 10:30 in the morning on a bright sunny day."

Bakicasaid the small female bear was around five years old and had likely been hit by a vehicle sometime within the past year. It was blind in one eye and had an injured foot.

Conservation officers also recently responded to a family of bears that weregetting into garbage in the city's Mount Sima subdivision. That encounter hada happier outcome.

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Baikica said the bears were relocated to a spot with more berries andsince they were easily scared by people, there's hope they won't return to the residential area.

"We got all of them in a trap and we relocated them. It remains to be seen whether they will show up again," he said.

"We moved them out of the area but we don't move them out of their range, hopefully that will be enough."

With files from Heather Avery