Shamattawa on high alert after series of bear attacks, says man who was mauled

Waylon Thomas says he was alone in his Shamattawa home last week when he saw a bear crawling out of his kitchen window.

"Once that bear [saw] me, it just crawled back inside and came after me and went out the door and followed me outdoors," where it attacked him late on the evening of July 24, he said.

"I didn't really feel nothing. When that bearscratched me twice and bit me twice,like, I didn't feel nothing not till later on."

Thomas isn't the only person in the northeastern Manitoba community to be attacked by a bear recently.

On Monday, a 60-year-oldman was found deadin a wooded area near a path,with evidence suggestinganimal predation, RCMP said. They believe the animal involved was a bear.

Thomas said the man killed was his uncle, John Wood, who had been reported missing a few days earlier.

Barbara Skead,director ofShamattawa Health Services,saida child around six years oldwas also injured by a bear, also inside a home.

All the attacks happened within days of each other, she said.

RCMP said there has been an increased bear presence in the area, and the province has saidconservation officers were sent out to help with the investigation into the death.

People who live in the area areaccustomed to black bears roaming around, but Skead saidin all the years she's lived there, she's never seen anythinglike this,adding she chased a bear away from her own deck.

"Even in my own house, he came in," she said.

In the past, "people would go feed [them]. They were always around people," she said. "They didn't hurt anyone."

Skead said a planned camp outing for the whole community has been cancelled in light of the situation, and members of the community have been patrolling the area, hunting for bears.

"Even one of the [band] councillors, constantly he's driving around the bushes, andsometimes he'll take one or two men with him," she said.

"They saywhen bears attack someone, more likely they will try to come back for what they left behind."

Thomas said thatlast he heard, about 14 bears had been killed,but at least twoare still believed to be roaming around Shamattawa.

Everyone's on high alert, he said. That includes him, following the attack he suffered last week.

"He came back. There's scratches on the board outside, trying to come inside," he said. "We stayup all night. I'm still tired."

Death would be 4th ever inManitoba: expert

Michael Campbell, a professor at the University of Manitoba's faculty ofthe environment, said several factors could be behind the attacks.

Population management plans after the COVID-19 pandemic led to fewer hunters coming to the province, causing a drop in the number of animals killed, Campbell said.

He also said if the bears are being fed,they may startassociating people with food.

But the biggest problem may be a lack of regular garbage pickup.

"Checking the local community notice board, there's a lot of people asking for someone to come and pick up their trash," he said.

"You can't leave it outside if it's not in a bear-proof container, because the bears are going to get into it outside and they're going to be attracted to it," said Campbell.

"At the same time, by keeping it in the house and if the houses are not that secure the bears can get in."

Campbell said black bear attacks are rare, though there have been a few cases in recent years. If the animal that attacked Wood was a bear, it would be the fourthfatal bear attackeverrecorded in Manitoba, he said.

He said he wouldn't be surprised if the same bear was responsible for all attacks.

When a mother is looking to breed again,"she chases theyoung of the previous year away, and [they start]to look for places to create their own territory," Campbell said.

"Typically, if we look at many of these negative interactions where you get bears in cottages and bears in garbage dumps, they tend to be those one-year-old, two year-olds."

Skead said Shamattawaalso noticed a lot of bears last year. Somedid try to get into houses when people were sleeping, but nobody washurt, she said.

"All of a sudden this happens,"said Skead. "It's kind of scary even for the kids to be outside or even someone to walk alone."