Sudbury police chief says educating residents led to fewer bear calls this summer

One year after Sudburians found themselves dealing with a rash of nuisance bears, city police say there have been fewer calls this past summer about the animals.

According to Paul Pedersen, Sudbury's Chief of Police, the service has received about half as many calls about bears, compared to last year.

Part of that reduction, Pedersen said, was due to better collaboration between Sudbury police and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, including education efforts to direct residents to the appropriate agency when they're faced with a bear.

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"To recognize what are the signs of a dangerous bear and what are the signs of a feeding bear that will move on," he said.

"I think that's really helped us in our calls for service, where potentially last year we were getting calls for bears that were simply just feeding on some food, foraging and moving on."

Fewer bear calls mean less of an impact on front-line officers, Pedersen added.

According to police, as of Friday morning, police received 779 calls for service about the animals, compared to over 1,600 in 2015. Last year's police numbers, in addition to calls to the MNRF's Bear Wise line, prompted bear experts to assemble in the city last fall to discuss the issue. At the time, the local office of the natural resources ministry said that better public education was key.

"This year we might not be seeing those [non-emergency calls], and people are letting them move on," Pedersen said.

That doesn't mean that there haven't been conflicts this year. In May, a Sudbury homeowner raised bear concerns after a bruin tore into her garage to get at garbage.

At that point in time, police said bear calls were actually up compared to 2015.