Anmore Triplets
On the morning of August 8, 2011, the lives of three cubs, and a town were about to be changed forever. While walking his dog near Buntzen Lake, an Anmore resident, unknowingly came between a mother bear and her three cubs. Wanting to defend her cubs, the mother charged the man – knocking him down and then standing over him. The mother bear then decided that scaring the man was enough and walked away. Unfortunately the man's dog decided to run after the bear – which only caused her to come charging back. A car was driving by and managed to spook the mother bear. Not long after, the RCMP arrived and shot the mother bear – leaving her three cubs orphaned.
The real tragedy though, is the bears history: This particular mother bear and her cubs were well known in the community of Anmore. They would often be seen in people’s backyards, and cruising down the streets – eating the garbage so carelessly left out for her and her cubs. Bears are motivated by food – from the time they come out of hibernation till the time they go in – it is all about eating as much food as possible. The easier the food is to find, the better it is, and in Anmore there was a buffet of easy food to feed her and her cubs. These bears would have never been so close to people and their pets if they had not been eating garbage that morning.
The three brothers, now orphaned, took refuge in a tree, unsure of what their future would be. A Conservation Officer located the cubs in their tree and transported them to Critter Care. All three cubs weighed in at 39lbs. A Conservation Officer named one of the cubs Kody, and an RCMP officer named the second cub Karsten, the third cub , a little brown one, was named Keeton by Critter Care staff. All three cubs were scared and desperately huddled together. They just wanted to be with each other.
During their first day at Critter care, the cubs mainly slept in one big bear pile. By the next day they were exploring more, and by the third day they were eating and starting to play. They were then introduced to the other bear Rascal and allowed into the main enclosure. It took the bears a couple of days to get used to each other, but they were soon playing and doing bear things as a gang of four. The bond between the ‘Anmore triplets’ as they are referred to, is strong. The brothers always have to know where the other is, and can be heard calling to each other if one is in another den box or is hiding. Kody is the goofy one – always being clumsy and cute, and the first to make new friends, Keeton is always the first to find the food, and Karsten is the wise one – always watching out for danger. In the spring all three cubs will be returned to the wild – far away from humans and their garbage.
As a result of the August 8th incident, Buntzen Lake installed bear proof dumpsters. The city of Anmore has changed its garbage laws, and has voted to take steps to become a bear aware community -hopefully saving the lives of many other bears.
