A bear that entered a home earlier in Smithers last week has now been caught and destroyed.
The young adult male black bear pushed open a door to a house on acreage not far from the downtown core while residents inside were sleeping.
By the time conversation officers arrived at the home, the homeowner had gotten it out. No one was injured.
Conservation Officer Flint Knibbs said this was not a regular call he gets.
“How it all aligned is very unusual; there weren’t any attractants noted in the house,” he said.
“We’ve had other instances when someone has baked a pie or something and put it by an open window. Those sorts of situations are understandable, there is a reason for a bear to enter the structure. In this circumstance there was nothing like that at all. The door was closed, it just wasn’t latched. The bear pushed it open and it happened to close behind him; very unusual behaviour for sure.”
The bear was caught late Thursday night after a trap was set up near by the home.
“We aren’t sure what was going on in the bear’s mind and public safety for us is number one. We didn’t have a good explanation of why things transpired the way they did, we made the decision to err on the side of caution for public safety,” he said.
It was not a conditioned bear that had been eating garbage for weeks at the property and there were no attractants outside either. He added that the homeowners kept everything clean and did everything properly to keep bears away.
While Knibbs said this is not regular bear behaviour, it is important to lock your doors.
“I jokingly told the homeowner that maybe we don’t have to lock our doors for burglars up here but we do to keep the wildlife out,” he said.