Jasper officials stress bear safety after cubs found napping on roofs, munching on fruit

After several close encounters with bears, Parks Canada is reminding residents and visitors to remove attractive food sources to prevent the animals from getting too comfortable in the Jasper townsite.

Dave Argument, Jasper National Park resource conservation officer, told CTV News Edmonton that up to 10 bears have been using the townsite for food, including two mothers and five cubs.

According to Argument, the berry crop in the park's surrounding valley area was weak this season, tempting bears to venture into the town to find easily accessible food.

Thursday morning, a mother with three cubs ended up napping on the roof of a Jasper home after munching on fruit from a nearby tree.

Video shared with CTV News Edmonton shows Parks Canada officials using chalk pellets to spook the bears away from the home.

"They have a very low risk of causing any significant injury but they do make the bear uncomfortable," Argument said. "We can't just let them get more and more habituated."

A black bear sits atop a Jasper home after being woken up from a nap (Supplied).

Argument said that was the third time the family of black bears had returned for a fruit snack at that yard. The attractive trees are now in the process of being removed.

"These bears seem like they are not showing much aggression to people right now, but they are stressed in this environment, stressed by having people around them," Argument added.

"There is a chance for these encounters to change in their tone very quickly, especially if you get between a mother and her cubs when she's not expecting it or where they don't have an escape route nearby."A black bear looks for food in a bush in the backyard of a Jasper home (Supplied).

'THEY COME BACK'

While the national park authority has worked with Jasper officials to reduce the amount of garbage available to bears, the animals are now going after fruit growing on non-native trees.

A compounding problem Argument says is that mothers are teaching their children that this is an okay way of getting food.

"We understand, of course, that people love these trees, they're beautiful in the spring, and in some cases, the people use the fruit and pick everything," Argument said. "(But) once bears find a good tree like that, they come back."

If bears continue to become accustomed to using the townsite for food, Argument said officials might consider trapping them to relocate deeper into the park away from the town.

Only if that is unsuccessful would the park authority consider killing a bear.

A black bear climbs the roof of a Jasper home (Supplied).

While coming across a bear in the town may make a special photograph, Argument says people need to keep their distance.

"We really encourage people to give that space to bears," he said. "You need to make sure that they have a clear escape route they can move to."

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'FAST FOOD' FOR BEARS

Parks Canada is offering to help remove fruit trees, including cherry, crab apple, and apple trees, at no cost to homeowners. It also encourages park visitors to dispose of any garbage properly.

"In a lot of cases, homeowners are very cooperative with us and are tired of the bears in their yards and the threat to their pets or their children and the mess that comes with that," Argument said.

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Joe Urie, a Jasper resident and co-owner of a local tour company, says he gave permission to Parks Canada to remove his fruit trees in his yard and hopes others follow suit to help eliminate "fast food" for bears.

"In town," he said, "what we have is an abundance of food that we are providing. Not intentionally, but we have fruit trees. We have gardens and the like.

"They don't want to come around us, but they feel it's necessary, obviously because they need to fatten up for the winter," he added. "I believe that there are food resources out there that they could get by on currently, but it's not as easy and as abundant as walking into town in the night and eating 20 to 30 pounds of apples."

"They need to be feeding 24/7 to get the calories that they require for the winter, and they can get that done in town in a really short period of time."

Just this week, Urie said he was enjoying a backyard meal when a bear started moving toward his yard.

"Unfortunately, the town is here, and you aren't getting it out," Urie said. "But we can, both visitors and locals alike, adjust the way we behave in this space to give them that space."

"Those animals don't need to adjust. It's us."

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson