Pincher Creek area family has close call with a trio of young grizzly bears

Keith Lang, his wife and his daughter huddled in his truck and watched as three young grizzly bears took a very keen interest in the yard of his family’s Pincher Creek area home Thursday.

The grizzlies crept closer, circling and pushing past fences to try to get at a duck cage — they were maybe 60 yards away.

Lang blasted the horn and shouted.

Dogs barked.

His daughter, Kayla Lang-Furlotte, had her camera handy and captured the ordeal on video, because nobody was going to believe it otherwise.

“There’s lots of grizzly bears down in our area — we see them quite often,” Keith Lang said.

“And I’ve seen them in our yard before, over the years, but if they see you they’ll usually run — you’ll yell at them and they’ll usually just run away.

“But these particular ones had no fear.”

It’s a little unnerving, in hindsight, he says.

Lang first spotted the grizzlies when he noticed his horses were watching something off in the distance.

He went inside to tell his daughter and his wife, Terry Hutchinson-Lang, so they could come see the animals.

When they got back outside however, the bears were much, much closer.

Lang said one was respectful and leery, keeping a bit of distance but the other two were bold.

“We were halfway between the two houses, so our only option was to jump in the truck and that was it,” Lang-Furlotte said.

They tried their best to scare them off.

“Our intention was to make them afraid of humans to avoid having dead bears,” she said.

Dead bears is the last thing they want to see, Hutchinson-Lang said.

Hutchinson-Lang said it comes down to where they live — the land her husband’s family homesteaded a century back is home to many a grizzly bear.

She grew up in Calgary — now she can’t imagine living anywhere else.

“We’ve got to coexist with them,” she said.

“I think it’s a privilege to see what we see here — there has to be a respect between us and them.

“I’m honoured to be able to live here — I do enjoy it here.”

All three bears eventually headed off and over a ridge — Lang figures they’re headed in a loop toward Pincher Creek and eventually may be back.

The family’s being a little more aware and cautious now, Lang-Furlotte said.

Kim Titchener, Bear Safety and More founder, agreed that the trio of grizzlies will probably return.

Southern Canada’s seen a lot of similar activities from bears, and conflicts with them, she said.

“They’re breaking into grain bins, they’re coming in during the calving season and are taking calves, they’re killing livestock and also eating animals they find that have died,” she said.

“We’re getting more of these cases where people are seeing them on their property.”

Titchener also said, “The Government of Canada and Canada BearSmart have been working with these communities like Pincher Creek on bear-proofing — things like putting up electric fencing.”