After Curtis Pirie’s bicycle chain loosened, forcing him to ride across the street, he was stunned by what he saw. Just an hour earlier, his wife had shown him a picture of a bear on social media in their small community of Oliver, B.C.
“In the corner of my eye, I spotted this creature walking through an orchard… I had to do a double-take because initially, I couldn’t make out what it was. But as it approached, I recognized it as the bear my wife had mentioned and showed me,” he recounted.
The yearling bear had a large stove pipe stuck on its head and was pacing within a fenced orchard. Pirie enlisted his neighbor’s help, and together, they tried to remove the pipe from the bear’s head.
“We thought if we approached from opposite sides and tried to grab the pipe sideways, we might be able to pull it off ourselves. Well, that plan didn’t go so well,” Pirie chuckled.
The bear eventually climbed a tall tree. Pirie’s wife contacted the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, and Pirie, along with his neighbor, stayed with the bear for over two hours.
Conservation officers from Kelowna arrived and tranquilized the bear. It took about five minutes for the tranquilizer to take effect, after which the bear remained stuck in the tree. Subsequently, using a long pole, Pirie, his neighbor, and the officers guided the bear down to the ground and removed the pipe from its head.
The B.C. Conservation Officer Service disclosed that they had received several reports about the bear over the past ten days. The bear had evaded capture twice before.
Sgt. James Zucchelli mentioned, “Last Saturday morning, the bear appeared around the golf course in the Fairview Road area in Oliver, causing multiple reports of it being visible and colliding with vehicles and structures.”
Despite appearing thin, the conservation service confirmed that the bear seemed healthy. They relocated it back to the woods near Oliver. It remains unclear how the bear ended up with the pipe stuck on its head.
Zucchelli emphasized the importance of keeping attractants away and advising the public to contact the service if they encounter an animal in a similar predicament.