'Sent chills down my bones': Bear seen eating another bear in central B.C.

Spotting bears in B.C.'s backcountry is fairly routine for Mike Robertson.

Spotting a black bear feasting on another bear, however, is not.

"I tell ya, I've seen a lot of bears, a lot of wildlife over the years, but that sent chills down my bones," Robertson said.

The policy adviserworks with the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, south of Burns Lake, B.C. He's beendoing regular helicopter flyovers of areas charred by this summer's wildfires to get a sense of the damage.

This week, Robertson saw two bears on the shoreline of Cheslatta Lake. He thought they were both dead, before the helicopter dipped closer for a better look.

The crew was horrified when they realized what they were actuallyseeing a black bear hunched over the carcass of anotherbear, jaws bloodied.

Disturbed by the helicopter, the animal looked up and bared its teeth at the aircraft.

"That old boy was very, very, angry and protective of his kill," Robertsonsaid.

Seasonal aggression

The B.C. Conservation Officer Servicesaysbears are often more aggressive during the fall season as they prepare for hibernation and that it's not entirely unusual for the animalsto eat their own kind.

But Robertson believes there's been an increase in strange behaviour in light of the province's worst wildfire season since record-keeping began.

"They're definitely under stress because of the fires, the lack of food," he said. "A lot of their den sites have been totally scorched."

'Bear-eat-bear world'

Other bear populations have been known to resort to cannibalism when the going gets tough.

Up to eight cases of male polar bears preying on cubs and other bears were reported in Manitoba over the fall of 2009. Officials suspected climate change and diminishing habitat to be the cause.

Four years later, a group of hikers found a grizzly bear feeding on a black bearalong a trail in Banff, Alta. Park rangers there agreed it wasn't out of the ordinary as the animals prepare for winter but it is a rare sight.

"We know it's a dog-eat-dog world out there, but we're finding out it's a bear-eat-bear world as well,"Steve Michel, a human-wildlife conflict specialist with Banff National Park, said at the time.

With files from Audrey McKinnon, CBC's Daybreak North and the Canadian Press

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