Bears are coming into Whitehorse looking for berries

Here's a simple, and tasty, way to avoid bear trouble: eat those berries growing in your yard.

Because if you don't, a bear might.

"What we're finding this year is, we're having an increased number of bear conflicts simply related to bears following their noses," said Yukon conservation officer Aaron Koss-Young.

He says the problem is that there just aren't many wild berries this year in southern Yukon. Bears are typically feasting on soapberries and cranberries this time of year, as they try to fatten up before winter.

"When they can't find the berries in the woods, they're moving into our residential areas and they're finding our nice, flush, well-watered berries that are in our backyards," Koss-Young said.

"They're creating a bit of a public safety concern, when they lose their fear of people and they hang around our yards and they're hard to scare away and could potentially defend that food source that they've just found in your front yard."

He says conservation officers are getting "numerous calls, daily" about bears in residential areas in Whitehorse.

Over the weekend, a bear was caught and relocated after raiding someone's chokecherry tree in the Riverdale area.

"We're certainly busier than most years," he said.

'Low berry abundance' in the wild

Scott Cameron, a wildlife viewing technician with the Yukon government, confirms that it's a year of "low berry abundance" in many areas of Yukon.

The territorial government counts the wild berries produced each year in certain areasand "those counts were all on the lower end this year," Cameron said.

He said it's not a major reason for concern, since wild berry production always fluctuates from year to year. He also says that any given year's berry crop is determined by weather over the previous couple of years.

"So it's not a simple straight-line story between a few weeks of hot weather anytime and the berries we see," he said.

Next year might be completely different, but in the meantime conservation officers don't want bears to become habituated to backyard berries.

"I can sure appreciate how nice it is to have fresh fruit at our fingertips," said Koss-Young.

"Ideally, it would be nicer if people would consider if they're not going to harvest the fruit to consider ornamentals."