Conservation officers investigating bear skin found near Beaverdell

Conservation officers are investigating after a bear skin was found at the end of Smoker Road in Beaverdell on Saturday.

A photo of the bear skin was posted on the Beaverdell/Carmi Post-Its Facebook page under the presumption it was poached.

But, according to Tobe Sprado, the inspector for Okanagan Region conservation officers, that might not be the case.

“If it’s a lawfully killed bear, a lot of people will salt it and roll it up and stick it in their freezer, with the possibility of getting it taxidermied into a potential rug,” he told iNFOnews.ca today, Dec. 31. “Sometimes, if they leave it in for an extended period of time, the hair will start to slip. So it could be a bear hide and wasn’t of value anymore so they decided to dispose of it into the bush.”

He’s not ruling out the possibility that the bear was illegally killed but there was no blood or other signs of killing at the site, just hair and the hide itself.

The hide will be examined so more information can be gathered but, due to the Christmas holidays, there’s a backlog of work to be done.

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