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Grizzly ransacks B.C. vineyard

November 8, 2011  By The Canadian Press


Nov. 7, 2011, Kelowna, B.C. – A grape-loving grizzly bear has been banished to
the backcountry after it ransacked a British Columbia vineyard and
spooked a team of pickers.

Nov. 7, 2011, Kelowna, B.C. – A grape-loving grizzly bear has been banished to
the backcountry after it ransacked a British Columbia vineyard and
spooked a team of pickers.

The incident took place this past weekend in the Okanagan
community of Lake Country, north of Vernon, B.C., when the bear dug
under an orchard's fence, entered the vineyard, ripped down vines
and stakes and began eating grapes.

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"He'd been causing quite a bit of damage to the orchard," said
Terry Myroniuk, a conservation officer. “The fellow at the vineyard
was at his wits' end.''

Myroniuk and a colleague set up a culvert trap on wheels and a
foot snare and used moose meat as bait.

The grizzly was captured and a dart gun was used to inject an
immobilizing drug into the bear, said Myroniuk.

The officers fastened ear tags on the bear to trace its future
movements, took a DNA sample and photographed the animal.

With assistance from the landowner and vineyard helpers, they
slid the grizzly into the culvert trap, closed it and hauled it off
to a plateau.

It's rare for a grizzly to venture so deeply into the Okanagan
Valley, said Myroniuk, noting the bear may have a taste for "fruit"
and may even want to return for a refill.

If so, conservation officers will either relocate the animal a
second time or, if there's enough concern, kill it, Myroniuk added,
but for now, the grizzly is not considered a danger.


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