Killing an animal in a national park is illegal, however under certain circumstances Parks Canada is left with few other options.
That was the case on May 21, when a human wildlife specialist with Parks Canada was forced to shoot and kill an aggressive black bear near the Valley of the Five Lakes.
According to Parks, the agency had received several reports during the past few weeks that the bear had been approaching cars on Highway 93 indicating it had likely been fed by motorists.
It鈥檚 the first time Parks has had to intervene and kill an animal since 2014 when two bears were killed under similar circumstances.
It鈥檚 a tragic end to a situation that could have easily been avoided had people simply followed the most basic rules鈥揹on鈥檛 feed the wildlife.
For those of us who live in Jasper, or any other national park for that matter, we see first hand the consequences when animals become habituated, just look at the elk that roam through town on a regular basis.
Despite Parks Canada鈥檚 best efforts to educate people about the consequences of feeding wildlife it seems the message still isn鈥檛 getting through.
Every year there are reports of people feeding animals and every year there are at least one or two convictions, but even that doesn鈥檛 seem to deter the public.
Take last summer for example, a 42-year-old man was fined $1,000 after pleading guilty to feeding a black bear in Jasper National Park.
Had the full weight of the law been applied he could have faced a fine up to $25,000.
While a fine hurts, the biggest threat is the harm caused to the animal.
When someone feeds an animal it can become habituated and accustomed to easily accessible food. Often this means animals will approach humans and stay closer to highways increasing the likelihood of human-wildlife conflicts or getting hit by a car.
In some cases, as we saw two weeks ago, Parks staff are forced to kill the animal because it has become so accustomed to being fed it poses a risk to the public.
Knowing what the consequences are, the onus is on all of us to lead by example and inform the wider public, who may be new to Canada鈥檚 national parks, that it鈥檚 not only illegal to feed wildlife, but dangerous to the animal.
If we all do our small part, hopefully we can avoid killing the very animals we are trying to protect.
