Four grizzly bears captured in western Canada killed a mother and her adult daughter this month in what investigators say was a rare predatory attack, wildlife officials said Tuesday. DNA testing has conclusively linked a female grizzly bear and her three one-year-old cubs to the deaths of Jenny Balcarras, 48, and her 20-year-old daughter, Selah Reed, the British Columbia Conservation Officer Service said. The four bears were killed to protect the public, the AP reports.
- “Our investigation also revealed that this attack likely involved predatory behavior, which I can tell you is very rare,” Inspector Jeff Tire said during an online press briefing. “That is, we don’t know how it started, but we know how it ended.”
Tire said more than a dozen conservation officers worked to find the bears. He said the bears had to be killed “because bears involved in fatal attacks on people cannot be rehabilitated or relocated” due to the extreme risk to the public, the CBC reports. The women’s remains were found nearly 500 feet apart, near a trail outside Bella Coola, a remote community about 620 miles north of Vancouver. Family members raised the alarm after Reed missed a routine Saturday evening call with his sister. Researchers first found his mother’s remains, then Reed’s, in a bear cache, where bears store food.
Tire said the bears were not involved in another grizzly bear attack last November on a group of about 20 students and teachers at an elementary school in the same area. Eleven people were injured, two of them seriously. The latest killings have shaken the Nuxalk Nation community, which is still recovering from last year’s attack. Local authorities imposed a voluntary curfew and police escorted children to school.
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