We lost another one

I was depressed to read in the paper this week that a grizzly sow and one of her two cubs were killed by a train just east of Canmore.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Travel/Grizzly+bear+killed+train+near+Canmore/1675722/story.html

Wildlife officers were able to catch the orphan cub the next day, and relocate it.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Wildlife+officers+capture+bear/1680365/story.html

This particular bear loss hits close to home. We went hiking on May 31 on some trails in Canmore near the Alpine Club of Canada headquarters. TrailX (http://www.trailex.org/) had reported this sow and her cubs in the area that we hiked the day after we were there; by June 4th, the Kananaskis site (http://www.tpr.alberta.ca/parks/kananaskis/trailreport.aspx) had warnings up as well. The Old Camp Day Use Area where the cub was caught is only 3.2 km across the Bow Valley as the crow flies from the West Wing. Bear 71 (the sow) was not a bad, habituated bear, but was in fact a good and productive breeder. As the article notes, this is the second grizzly killed by a train in 4 weeks.

Strikes me that we need to consider fencing the train tracks the same way that they fenced the highway.