Bear found roaming Regina Monday morning euthanized, province says

WATCH: A black bear was spotted wandering around Regina Monday. Sierra D’Souza Butts has the story.

The province says a black bear found roaming the streets of Regina early Monday morning had to be “humanely euthanized.”

The bear, which weighed about 200 pounds and was a brown coloured black bear, was spotted near Victoria Avenue and Montreal Street. Video also showed it crossing Ring Road earlier in the day.

“I usually come through the Ring Road south, and I saw this bear running towards the road,” shared Christopher Wesaquate, recalling the encounter at around 3 a.m.

“I pulled over and I grabbed my phone. I was wondering, ‘what is this bear doing entering the city?’ He’s a danger to himself or can endanger the public. I followed him and he went to the University of Regina.”

Out of concern for public safety, Wesaquate said he contacted campus security to advice them about the animal’s presence.

“I was afraid that somebody would come out of their dorm or a student walking through the U of R would run into this bear and they would both be afraid of each other,” he said. “I waited there until I seen the university security.”

From campus, the bear made its way downtown where Regina police then located the bear in a tree before conservation officers arrived to sedate and relocate the bear outside of the city, according to the province.

“The officers attempted to immobilize [the bear]. However, due to complications, the officers had to make the difficult decision to take it to a safe location outside the city where it could be humanly euthanized,” the province said in an email to CTV News.

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The province added that conservation officers usually have a high success rate of sedating and moving animals out of the city, but said that sometimes the outcome for the animal is not what they hope for.

“Most often the animals will move on without any intervention,” the province added.

The Wildlife Rescue Society of Saskatchewan said large animals including bears mainly enter city limits to try and find food.

“Bears just kind of follow their noses. All they think about is food,” explained executive director Bonnie Dell. “This [bear] would just be following his nose, and they can’t really differentiate. My understanding it was in the early hours in the morning so things were quiet. He probably would have left quickly once things got noisier.”

Dell advised people to keep their distance if coming across wildlife, and to immediately contact their local conservation officers.

“[Conservation officers] are the number one people to call in the province for any wildlife incident like this,” Dell explained.

“If you have a dog, make sure your dog is well leashed ... because over 90 per cent of wildlife encounters that are negative with people involve dogs, and that includes bears, coyotes, moose, and deer.”

If a bear is repeatedly causing damage to your property, or if you have an aggressive encounter, the province says to call its Turn in Poachers and Polluters line or RCMP.