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Conservation Service

It’s probably not a cougar: Kamloops Conservation

KAMLOOPS – There have been four unconfirmed sightings of cougars in Kamloops within just as many days, but Conservation officer Kevin Van Damme wants to stress these sightings are just that — unconfirmed. “Five to seven times out of ten, sightings turn out to be something other than a cougar,” he says, adding of the...

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...

B.C. Conservation Service offers advice for hunters and hikers

KAMLOOPS – There have been instances of wildlife being shot and left to rot in the Kamloops area over the last few months, but most of the cases aren't the result of poaching, just mistakes, according to a Conservation officer. A dead black bear was discovered in an alleyway in downtown Kamloops and the last...

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...

Black bear caught in downtown Kamloops put down

KAMLOOPS – A 300 pound male black bear captured in Pioneer Park in downtown Kamloops has been euthanized. Conservation officer Jesse Jones says his office received several calls yesterday, Aug. 26, about the bear.  “The risk to the public was very high,” Jones says. The bear was known to the conservation officers and favoured a...

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...

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,...

Bobcat sightings becoming more common in the North Okanagan

VERNON - North Okanagan residents spotted an increasing number of bobcats in recent years. Conservation officer Mike Richardson says there have already been 16 bobcat reports since April of 2014. That’s not out of line with the last few years—14 last year and 18 the year before. But it’s a lot more than it used...

NEWSMAKERS 2014: North Okanagan cougars clash with humans

THIS WEEK, INFONEWS.CA IS COUNTING DOWN THE TOP FIVE STORIES OF THE YEAR. TODAY: NUMBER FIVE VERNON - It may have been the year of the horse according to the Chinese Zodiac, but in Vernon, 2014 was the year of the cougar. Between April and October, the Conservation Service received 186 cougar reports in the...

HELSTON: Don’t be afraid to call the conservation officer

Residents across the Interior contacted the conservation service over the past year to report wildlife encounters ranging from simple sightings to bizarre and in some cases, tragic extremes. There was a cougar found inside a Vernon home chewing on a squeaky toy, a pack of wolves that killed a woman’s dog in Merritt, aggressive coyotes...

Trap set for yet another North Okanagan cougar

NORTH OKANAGAN - A cougar preying on house cats in a North Okanagan subdivision marks yet another big cat encounter in what has been a busy year for the conservation service. Sgt. Josh Lockwood of the  North Okanagan Conservation Service says the latest cougar was spotted two weeks ago in the McLeod subdivision, north-east of...