PENZANCE—Bear sightings in this part of the province are pretty rare.
Don Kennedy happened to get a glimpse of a good-sized black bear at about noon, Tuesday, May 28.
He spotted the bear a half mile north of his farmyard that is located three miles west of Penzance.
At first he thought it was a moose, until he got a closer look and realized it was in fact a bear.
“It was just going across a field, walking, eating on the ground and sniffing,” Kennedy said.
The bear didn’t seem to be in a hurry. Kennedy said it came from the west and was going in a northeasterly direction.
“I watched it for about an hour,” he said.
He drove closer to get a better look. Then the bear ran into the bush.
Kennedy said he phoned a friend to tell him about the bear.
“His wife is one of those who’s got a phone glued to her hand,” Kennedy said.
“Soon everybody came out. I don’t know how she could get it out so fast. Lots of guys in the field shut it down and came over because there were lots of blackened faces,” Kennedy said of the farmers in the gathering.
He said no one believed him when he first told folks about it.
“Nobody believed me at first. They called me all sorts of names,” Kennedy said.
He has a flip phone, so he couldn’t text message his friends photographic proof.
This was the first time he saw a bear in the area. He reported the bear to the game warden.
He said the conservation officer told him that unless the bear is a nuisance, they would leave it alone. If the bear kills livestock or gets into garbage, Kennedy said then conservation officials would trap and relocate the bear.
Saskatchewan Environment conservation officer Daryl Minter said Saskatchewan has a healthy bear population and it’s not unusual to see them in the wild this time of year. He said spring is when bears are out looking for new territory and will continue to roam until they find an area with a good food source.
“It probably hasn’t come from that far away,” he said. Bears usually travel along water ways.
He said the bear was likely foraging when Kennedy saw it crossing the field.
“At this time of year there is no shortage of dandelions and that keeps them happy.” He said people needn’t report bear sightings unless the bear is hanging around houses or being a nuisance. He advises people to keep their distance and to remember that bears are wild animals.
