Living with Your Wild Neighbors - How to Stay Safe

Help keep your neighbourhood and wildlife safe by securing all attractants and smelly items, including:

  • Bird seed
  • Compost
  • Food scraps
  • Fruit
  • Garbage

Ensure your home and property are wildlife resistant.

Keep Your Distance

Parks Canada and Metro Vancouver Regional Parks recommend 100 metres or more as a safe distance to stay away from bears. Allowing bears to be comfortable on your property or getting too close to try and capture a photo can lead to you habituating bears to humans. Respect the bears and give them their space. Habituation starts slowly - through constant, repeated exposure to people. Habituation can rapidly progress until bears become increasingly bold and fearless around people, which can be dangerous for both the bears and people.

What to Do When You Encounter Wildlife

If you encounter wildlife:

  • Stop and remain calm. Often the wildlife is just passing through and will simply move on if it finds no food source.
  • Do not scream or run.
  • Make yourself look big.
  • Talk in a low and calm voice while backing away slowly.
  • Bring pets and children into the house.
  • When safely inside, you may use an air horn or loud noise to scare away the animal and let it know it’s not welcome in your yard.