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Grizzly attack kills Canmore woman
Last updated Jun 6 2005 03:03 PM MDT
CBC News
CANMORE – A grizzly bear attacked and killed competitive mountain biker Isabelle Dube Sunday afternoon, when she and two friends ran across the animal while out for a training run along a popular hiking trail.
Isabelle Dube during last year's 24 Hours of Adrenaline race (Photo Craig Douce/Rocky Mountain Outlook)
The male bear, which weighed 198 pounds and was between three and four years of age, had been removed from the same area a week earlier, when it followed a woman out taking wildflower photos.
"She definitely was just a great person," said Brian Lapointe, general manager of the Drake Hotel, which sponsored Dube in the Fernie to Canmore race last year. "We'll miss her a ton."
Dube, 36, was married and had a five-year-old daughter. She was a teacher and biked competitively, coming in third in the grueling seven-day, 600-kilometre Fernie to Canmore race.
Her teammate in that event, Maria Hawkins, was one of her running partners Sunday.
The three women were running near the SilverTip Golf Course – which uses a grizzly as its logo – when they spotted the bear about 20 to 25 metres away.
Dube climbed a tree, while the other two women slowly backed away, then ran for help. But the bear pulled Dube down, and by the time wildlife officials arrived, it was too late.
Officers shot and killed the bear, which was sent to the lab in Edmonton where they will try to determine whether it had health issues that would have contributed to the attack.
"There's no doubt she was aware this could happen," one friend of Dube's said. "Like the rest of us, you don't stop living because it may happen."
The grizzly that attacked Isabelle Dube, before it was removed from the area May 27 (Photo Craig Douce/Rocky Mountain Outlook)
Dave Ealey, a spokesman for Fish and Wildlife, said the bear had been removed from the area May 27, after it continually wandered onto the golf course and, at one point, followed a woman who was taking photos in the area.
Niki Davison said she was photographing orchids along the same trail when she heard a crashing that she at first attributed to bikers.
"When I realized it was a grizzly, I stood up and tried to back away slowly," she said.
Davison said she would retreat when the bear looked away, then stop again. Eventually, after about 10 minutes, it wandered off. Her report led the wildlife officers to trap the bear and move it to nearby Banff National Park.
Ealey said they put a radio collar on the bear, and had taken notice when it came back into the Canmore area early Saturday morning. But they didn't feel it posed a danger.
"The bear was not aggressive, it behaved as a bear its typical age and sex would," Ealey said when asked why the bear hadn't been moved farther away. The grizzly was kept within its home range, Ealey added.
Grizzly expert Brian Horesji says it's unusual for a grizzly to attack a group of people. But he added that Canmore is becoming a classic case of man and nature battling for space.
Attacks will happen "as long as we have people and bears in that kind of close proximity, because we can't conceivably educate enough people to eliminate these situations," he said.
Dube was the first person in the province killed by a bear since 1998.
At the end of May, a grizzly attacked a man hiking in the Ghost River-Waiparous area. He was able to escape after kicking the bear.
Last updated Jun 6 2005 03:03 PM MDT
CBC News
CANMORE – A grizzly bear attacked and killed competitive mountain biker Isabelle Dube Sunday afternoon, when she and two friends ran across the animal while out for a training run along a popular hiking trail.
Isabelle Dube during last year's 24 Hours of Adrenaline race (Photo Craig Douce/Rocky Mountain Outlook)
The male bear, which weighed 198 pounds and was between three and four years of age, had been removed from the same area a week earlier, when it followed a woman out taking wildflower photos.
"She definitely was just a great person," said Brian Lapointe, general manager of the Drake Hotel, which sponsored Dube in the Fernie to Canmore race last year. "We'll miss her a ton."
Dube, 36, was married and had a five-year-old daughter. She was a teacher and biked competitively, coming in third in the grueling seven-day, 600-kilometre Fernie to Canmore race.
Her teammate in that event, Maria Hawkins, was one of her running partners Sunday.
The three women were running near the SilverTip Golf Course – which uses a grizzly as its logo – when they spotted the bear about 20 to 25 metres away.
Dube climbed a tree, while the other two women slowly backed away, then ran for help. But the bear pulled Dube down, and by the time wildlife officials arrived, it was too late.
Officers shot and killed the bear, which was sent to the lab in Edmonton where they will try to determine whether it had health issues that would have contributed to the attack.
"There's no doubt she was aware this could happen," one friend of Dube's said. "Like the rest of us, you don't stop living because it may happen."
The grizzly that attacked Isabelle Dube, before it was removed from the area May 27 (Photo Craig Douce/Rocky Mountain Outlook)
Dave Ealey, a spokesman for Fish and Wildlife, said the bear had been removed from the area May 27, after it continually wandered onto the golf course and, at one point, followed a woman who was taking photos in the area.
Niki Davison said she was photographing orchids along the same trail when she heard a crashing that she at first attributed to bikers.
"When I realized it was a grizzly, I stood up and tried to back away slowly," she said.
Davison said she would retreat when the bear looked away, then stop again. Eventually, after about 10 minutes, it wandered off. Her report led the wildlife officers to trap the bear and move it to nearby Banff National Park.
Ealey said they put a radio collar on the bear, and had taken notice when it came back into the Canmore area early Saturday morning. But they didn't feel it posed a danger.
"The bear was not aggressive, it behaved as a bear its typical age and sex would," Ealey said when asked why the bear hadn't been moved farther away. The grizzly was kept within its home range, Ealey added.
Grizzly expert Brian Horesji says it's unusual for a grizzly to attack a group of people. But he added that Canmore is becoming a classic case of man and nature battling for space.
Attacks will happen "as long as we have people and bears in that kind of close proximity, because we can't conceivably educate enough people to eliminate these situations," he said.
Dube was the first person in the province killed by a bear since 1998.
At the end of May, a grizzly attacked a man hiking in the Ghost River-Waiparous area. He was able to escape after kicking the bear.
Deport him!
'What are we supposed to use? Harsh language?' Anyone under those conditions is going to pull back.
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