(Fraser Koroluk photo of adult female grizzly, left, with cubs on the Atnarko River in the Bella Coola Valley)
Investigation into last fall's Bella Coola grizzly attack the costliest in BC history at more than $200,000
Safety concerns remain over whereabouts of adult female bear involved in the attack
The Conservation Officer Service (COS) spent more than $200,000 in a failed attempt to capture the grizzly bear involved in the attack on a school group last fall near Bella Coola.
"Overall costs...were the highest amount for a response to a predator attack to date," the Ministry of Environment and Parks confirmed in a written statement to sixmountains.ca.
A total of 24 conservation officers were deployed during the intensive two-week operation.
"Public safety is paramount," the ministry said. "The Bella Coola response was a priority, and officers were reprioritized to respond to this unprecedented attack."
On November 20 a school group from the Nuxalk Nation stopped along a trail in the 4 Mile area near the Bella Coola River when a grizzly emerged from the forest and attacked.
Three children and one teacher were airlifted to the Lower Mainland with serious injuries.
Teachers used bear spray and a loud bear banger in an effort to repel the attack.
An adult female grizzly, with two cubs, thought to be responsible, was never located.
With grizzlies now out of hibernation, some residents in the central-coast community have lingering safety concerns.
Is the same grizzly still out there and posing a continued threat? Or was the attack the result of unique circumstances unlikely to be repeated?
"It's a tough one, it's mostly the unknown," says Shannon Lansdowne, co-owner of the Bella Coola Mountain Lodge and president of the Bella Coola Valley Tourism Association.
"It's all speculation why the bear did what it did."
Tourists visiting the valley are encouraged to carry bear spray, and to travel with a guide rather than solo, she said. "On the shores of a river in the fall you're going to run into bears. It's going to happen."
In the fall, the provincial government and Nuxalk Nation offer bear viewing at a site on the Atnarko River, a salmon-rich tributary of the Bella Coola River.
(Larry Pynn photo of bear viewing site on the Atnarko River in the Bella Coola Valley)
As for the cost of the government's response, Lansdowne feels it was commensurate with the unprecedented nature of the attack.
"You'd expect that level of response," she said. "As the mother of three, it's not reassuring the bear wasn't caught. But I don't know what else could have been done.”
Bruce McLellan, a retired provincial forest research biologist with four decades of experience studying bears, says that the circumstances of the Bella Coola attack are very unusual.
News reports at the time said the school group included about 20 students and teachers.
“Those things don’t happen.” McLellan said. “When I heard it was a bunch of school kids, I thought, ‘well, that’s almost impossible because school kids make so much noise.'”
One factor could be the physical condition of the female bear that attacked.
The COS said on November 21 that “preliminary information suggests the bear may have been previously injured.” The province has not provided further information on the potential injury.
An injury could make “behavioural biological sense,” McLellan said. But if that’s not the cause of the attack, “it’s a very strange and unique event.”
(Larry Pynn photo of grizzly on the Atnarko River in the Bella Coola Valley)
Whatever the reason for the attack, some say it’s time for the COS to be more proactive on the issue of food attractants that can bring bears closer to humans.
“They’ve had decades in advance to prepare the community...” says Fraser Koroluk, a biologist and owner of Kynoch Adventures. “In my mind, I feel they failed on that.”
Koroluk conducts commercial bear viewing in the eastern end of the valley in Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park, whereas the attack occurred in the western end of the valley, closer to the community of Bella Coola.
He previously served as a coordinator to reduce human-wildlife conflicts in the valley.
The problem of attractants is pervasive, he said, extending to unattended garbage cans and orchards, pet food left outside, as well as fish offal left on the ground.
“I’ve lived here for 40 years and it’s become more common for bears to be in proximity of humans.”
Under the Wildlife Act, it is illegal to leave an attractant that could bring dangerous wildlife to any land or premises where there are likely to be people.
McLellan said that the issue of food attractants is a common problem in B.C. “It’s a slow uphill battle. We’re still a long ways from everybody being Bear Smart.”
(https://wildsafebc.com/programs/bear-smart/ )
The difference is that residents of the Bella Coola Valley, along with the Elk Valley in southeastern BC, share their communities with “lots of grizzlies,” he said. “Those two areas are somewhat unique.”
Conservation officers took the lead in investigating the Bella Coola grizzly attack.
(Conservation Officer Service photo of two of 24 officers involved in grizzly attack investigation)
Base salary costs to COS employees totalled $80,954 which would have been paid regardless of whether this attack had occurred, says the province.
In addition, overtime amounted to $89,684, according to freedom-of-information documents obtained by sixmountains.ca.
The documents also list $17,372 for “additional staff” and $22,504 in “operational costs.”
The various amounts total about $210,000, which include the travel costs of biologists and drone operators with the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.
In addition, the RCMP provided a helicopter with thermal imaging capability.
Conservation officers set snares and traps, and drove overnight delivering hair samples for DNA testing in Alberta. Eight grizzlies determined not to be linked to the attack were relocated.
As the investigation concluded on December 5, the COS spoke of an “extraordinary response to an extraordinary attack,” saying the “behaviour and actions of this bear were aggressive and unlike any other documented grizzly bear attack we have seen in BC, or Canada.”
(In August 1997, a black bear in poor condition killed two persons and seriously injured two others in an attack at Liard River Hot Springs in northern BC. A visitor to the hot springs shot and killed the bear.)
The Nuxalk Nation did not respond to a request for comment on this article, including on the health status of the four persons seriously injured in the attack.
In a December 11 news release, Chief Samuel Schooner said the bear attack had left the four victims with "devastating injuries and lifelong trauma."
He added, in part: “This incident has been the single most challenging time in our Nation’s recent history, and we received an outpouring of support from our own community, our neighbouring Nations, allies, the provincial government, and people from across the country."
Subscribe free to sixmountains.ca. More than 123,000 unique visitors.
Consider a donation to in-depth independent reporting.
(Larry Pynn is nominated for a Canadian Association of Journalists award for his sixmountains.ca investigative series on an unauthorized landfill on Cowichan Tribes reserve land: https://www.sixmountains.ca/article/6b58c0bc-455b-4090-b4e8-c4868545eefe )
— May 26, 2026
