Skip to content
  1. Home
  2. Local News

VIDEO: Burnaby resident wakes up to 400-pound bear chilling in backyard

Local resident of nearly five decades says they generally see one bear every year
Jess Balzer
Jess Balzer

Video from a Burnaby resident shows what appears to be a 400-pound black bear awakening to this morning's rainfall (March 23). 

Ric Caley, who's lived at his property since 1974, said the bear has shown up the last two days curling up in the bushes of his home's backyard near the east side of Burnaby Lake. 

He says the bear has just been hanging out and minding its own business. 

"No food to attract him. Our yard is curated bush, no lawn and has been this way since house [was] built-in 1974," he told the NOW.

"We generally see a bear every year.

"I advise giving bears their space. They were here first and we humans are usurpers in their territory." 

41 Burnaby black bear sightings reported since the start of 2022

According to the British Columbia Conservation Foundation's Wildlife Alert Reporting Program (WARP), there have been 41 reported sightings of black bears in Burnaby since the start of this year. 

There have been 10 reported in the past two weeks. 

The provincial organization also encourages residents to consider the following tips around bears:

  • Keep your garbage in or secured until the day of collection. Garbage is the number one attractant cited in reports to the provincial hotline
  • Manage your fruit trees
    • Don’t let windfalls accumulate, and pick fruit as it ripens
    • If you don’t want the fruit, consider...
      • Accessing a fruit gleaning group in your community
      • Washing the blossoms off in the spring so the fruit doesn’t set
      • Replacing the tree with a non-fruit bearing variety
  • Don’t put out bird feeders when bears are active
    • A kilo of bird seed has approximately 8,000 calories and is a great reward for a hungry bear
  • Keep your compost working properly with lots of brown materials and a regular schedule of turning
  • If you have livestock or backyard chickens use a properly installed and maintained electric fence to keep bears and livestock apart

The public is also being reminded to check all of your surroundings when out in the backcountry as bears are known to hang out in trees.

- with files from Kyle Balzer, Tri-City News

bearsightingsburnaby