Grizzly bears, cougars, sheep and deer met without incident during G7, officials say

As the G7 summit concludes in the popular wilderness destination of Kananaskis, Alta., officials say provincial teams managed frequent animal encounters without serious incident.

Alberta conservation officers and fish and wildlife officers responded to occurrences involving grizzly bears, black bears, cougars, moose, bighorn sheep and deer during the summit, according to a spokesperson with Alberta’s Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Services.

“None of these occurrences involved any abnormal interactions with the wildlife in question and our standard methods to safely move them away were successful,” Sheena Campbell wrote in an email.

Officials responded to approximately 200 wildlife-related incidents, about half involving grizzly or black bears, said Bryan Sundberg with Alberta Forestry and Parks.

All were minor in nature, requiring only minimal intervention with no relocations or harm to wildlife, he said.

“Primarily, we would respond to areas on foot … to areas where wildlife complaints were received, and use noisemaking activities,” he said.

Response teams also used thermal imaging cameras and leveraged RCMP drones to monitor real-time wildlife activity.

“Additionally, specially-trained K9 teams, ‘bear dogs,’ [were] on-site to support our proactive approach,” Campbell wrote.

Bear dogs were embedded with wildlife mitigation and response teams, primarily to deter bears safely.

Complex, wild environment

In the run-up to the summit, officials highlighted the “complexity” of hosting the summit in the remote terrain of the Kananaskis wilderness.

Preventing encounters with bears was of particular focus, both for the safety of attendees and given past incidents.

The last time the summit was held in Kananaskis in 2002, a bear that got too close to the site was tranquilized and later died after falling from a tree.

Nick de Ruyter, program director of the BioSphere Institute’s WildSmart program, said this is a busy time of year for bear populations.

“They’ve come out of their dens of hibernation, in April and May. They’re hungry, they’re looking for food,” he said. 

While he doesn’t know the exact numbers, de Ruyter estimated there are around 65 grizzly bears and more than 200 black bears in the Bow Valley and Kananaskis Country area. 

There being no wildlife conflicts during the G7 despite an influx of people speaks to how tolerant and adaptable local wildlife is, de Ruyter said. 

“Ninety-nine per cent of the time, they do the right thing. They’re just trying to make a living out on the landscape, and they will avoid us,” he said.

“They’ll avoid encounters and conflict with people as much as they can. And so we just need to do our part and respect that.”