B.C. woman describes nighttime encounter with grizzly bear intruder in family’s house

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Jun 18, 2007
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Norman Spector ‏@nspector4

This could explain why rural Canadians feel differently about guns from denizens of downtown Toronto

When Niki Traverse went to bed Saturday night, the Kimberley, B.C., mother did what anyone would do on a hot August evening — she opened the windows to let some air in. But at 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning, she discover that was a fateful mistake — fateful, at least, for the giant male grizzly who burst through the screen and into their cupboard. As the bear turned its attention to the startled family, Niki’s husband Mark fired his hunting rifle and shot it dead. The woman spoke with the National Post’s Sarah Boesveld Monday.

Q: You were the first to wake up to the sound of your dog barking.

A: He was going crazy, barking his head off. So I got up to see what was going on. My husband was like, ‘Don’t let him out! Don’t let him out! There’s a bear or cougars or coyotes outside!’

Q: You thought that was true?

A: We live out in the bush, so guaranteed. I wanted to make sure the door was locked. Then I walked to the front door and the bear was right there at that entry-way. He didn’t see me, but I’d seen him. I didn’t turn lights on or anything, but his head was in the cupboard, eating cat food and dog food. So obviously he was a very sick bear and he’d been into that stuff before, because he walked right past the garbage. It was very fast. He went at my husband, my husband shot him once and he was still coming forward … my husband reloaded and he moved four to six feet closer to my husband.

Q: What were you thinking?

A: I’m thinking, ‘My husband’s going to get the job done.’

Q: You weren’t thinking, ‘This is it, we’re going to die?’

A: I had total confidence in my husband. It was certain death for the bear, for sure. We didn’t know it was a bear, until Mark turned the light on and he just started screaming, ‘It’s a f—ing grizzly! It’s a f—ing grizzly! Get back! Get back!’

Q: How big was the bear?

A: It took three grown men and my son to move it. It was between 10 and 15 years old, the conservation officer said — you could tell by the size and the staining on the teeth. At least between 400 and 600 pounds. It was very tall — it totally could have killed us — but it was very skinny and malnourished because it wasn’t eating enough. That’s why it was desperate enough to come into the house.




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B.C. woman describes nighttime encounter with grizzly bear intruder in family’s house | National Post