A fourth grizzly bear has been struck by a vehicle and killed in B.C.’s Yoho National Park.
Parks Canada confirmed Friday morning that an older male grizzly was struck and killed around midnight on Sunday along an unfenced section of the Trans-Canada Highway near Field, B.C.
Parks Canada said it does not have additional information on the animal as it was not previously known to the agency.
This is the fourth grizzly bear killed in Yoho National Park this year, all of which have happened this month.
On June 8, a rare white grizzly named Nakoda was found dead from what Parks Canada believes were internal injuries sustained in a collision in Yoho National Park on the Trans-Canada Highway near the Lake O’Hara turnoff on Thursday, June 6.
Parks Canada confirmed the bear’s death after investigating a mortality signal from her GPS collar. Parks Canada had been tracking Nakoda, officially Bear 178, for two years.
Just two days before Nakoda’s death, her two cubs were killed in a separate vehicle incident on the same highway.
The grizzly deaths devastated both Parks Canada staff and those in the wildlife community.
“An emotional reaction,” wildlife photographer John E Marriott told Global News just days after Nakoda and her cubs were killed. “Photographers, tourists, everybody flocked to get out to see her. I think a lot of people developed a very deep, emotional connection with her. For a lot of people, she was the first grizzly bear they saw.”
In its statement on Friday, Parks Canada said it takes the protection of wildfire very seriously and team members work hard to reduce human-caused wildlife mortality.
“Visitors are asked to respect posted speed limits and no-stopping zones at all times, as well as stay alert and prepared to encounter wildfire at any time, even when driving along fenced sections of the highway,” Parks Canada said.
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