Wildlife
Reports of dogs chasing bighorn sheep to death in the Okanagan
PET OWNERS REMINDED OF CONSEQUENCES, FINES VERNON – The B.C. Conservation Service is investigating reports…
Okanagan researchers want your bobcat and lynx photos
VERNON – Photos of bobcats and lynx are being sought as part of a university…
Mountain snow pushing bobcats into Okanagan valley
OKANAGAN – Weather is a likely factor behind a rising number of bobcat sightings this…
Curious bobcat pokes head into Okanagan home
VERNON - A curious animal believed to be a bobcat stuck its head inside a Vernon home recently. Conservation officer Tanner Beck says a homeowner in the Silver Star Road area left her door open around 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 18 and a bobcat 'poked its head in to see what was going on.’ “It...
Conflicts between humans and bears expected to increase in the Okanagan
WEST KELOWNA – A busy weekend for bear sightings in West Kelowna could signal the start of a fall rife with bear-human conflicts. Frank Ritcey, the creator of the interactive Wildlife Alert Reporting Program on WildsafeBC.com, says four sightings of black bears were reported in the Shannon Lake neighbourhood in West Kelowna since Friday. “This...
Cougar shot near elementary school
LUMBY - A cougar was put down by the Conservation Service Monday morning in Lumby after it attacked livestock. Conservation officers trapped and shot the large, roughly five-year-old, 170 pound male cougar, after it killed a resident’s sheep and alpaca in the Schwartz Road area behind J.W. Inglis Elementary. Conservation officer Ken Owens says the...
How a standoff between a horse, two dogs and cougar ended in Lumby
LUMBY - It was a sight Lumby resident Tina Berg never expected: Her 1,300 pound horse practically nose-to-nose with a cougar. It was around 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 21, when Berg, who lives about three kilometres out of Lumby in a rural area, heard her dogs barking. “It was a bark I just know means...
Bertram Creek Park reopens after cougar sightings
KELOWNA – Officials have reopened the Bertram Creek Regional Park after sightings of a cougar in the area shut it down Wednesday. Regional District spokesperson Bruce Smith says signs about the recent sightings will remain up to warn residents of the ongoing risk. “Those using this and other Regional Parks in a more natural-setting should be...
Close encounter with wildlife at the Shark Club
KAMLOOPS – A woman driving to work got a big surprise when she came around the roundabout at Third Avenue this morning, a deer jumped out in front of her car and then into the Shark Club's front door. Natasha Nel was on her way to work just before 8 a.m. when the deer, using...
Numerous snake scares in the Okanagan
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Snake encounters have shaken up a number of Okanagan residents in the last few days — including one in an apartment building — and a wildlife control expert says in many cases, it has to do with the weather. Pete Wise runs a wildlife control service based in Vernon and says he’s had...
About the recent spike in moose sightings in Kelowna…
KELOWNA – Two separate moose encounters in Kelowna have made the news in the last couple weeks, and several more sightings have been reported to WildSafe B.C. during that time, but is the number of moose sightings this year any different from last? Conservation B.C. spokesperson Barb Leslie says it isn't. According to her, ten...
‘All of a sudden, a friggin’ moose comes out of nowhere and lands on the front of the truck’
KELOWNA - Doug Adams remembers the moose slamming into the hood, then sliding up the windshield, six inches from his face. The impact brought the one-ton diesel truck to an instant standstill. Adams, 56, of Vernon, was the passenger in a truck that collided with an estimated 800 pound moose last Friday, May 1, in...
Watch out for rattlesnakes; they’re out early in the Thompson-Okanagan
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Sunny weather has gotten many of us out from beneath our rocks looking for some rays, and we’re not the only ones in the animal world. Warm temperatures have brought rattlesnakes out earlier than normal in the Thompson-Okanagan, according to WildSafe B.C. spokesperson Frank Ritcey. “With the warm weather, the snakes will be...
HELSTON: Hundreds of bears die every year for this stupid reason
This goes out to anyone who’s left their garbage out and had a bear get into it; you might as well have put a bullet through its head. It sounds harsh, I know, but hundreds of bears across B.C. are killed by conservation officers every year because they’ve grown habituated to garbage. Sorry to break...
Bears are waking up and looking for food in the North Okanagan
VERNON - The Conservation Service is reminding the public to minimize attractants as bears come out of hibernation and start looking for food. Conservation officer Mike Richardson says the number of bear complaints has already started to climb in the North Okanagan. “They’re definitely awake and coming out of their dens,” Richardson says. On Monday,...