This bear cub was seen walking in the front of some cabins in Cochin on Tuesday morning. (Submitted photo/David Skaar)

By Angela Brown

Summer meandering

Cochin residents surprised to see bear walking past front deck

Jul 27, 2021 | 6:01 PM

A Cochin couple were taken aback when they looked out the front window of their cabin Tuesday morning to discover a young bear sauntering by their front deck.

“I was just shocked,” Diana Skaar said. “I said to my husband, ‘Look, there’s a bear!’ We took pictures. Then, my husband went out and kind of followed the bear’s steps.”

The bear walked up through an empty lot beside their property, then it walked through their backyard and headed out towards the Lighthouse.

Skaar said the cub was travelling alone.

“He didn’t stop to scrounge anything,” she said. “He was just walking, then just crept through the [yard] and tootled of.”

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Everyone was safe. Skaar and her husband were inside at the time, and their teenage grandson and two of his friends were asleep.

“We’ve never seen an actual bear,” she said. “We know they are around, but this is the first time we have actually seen [one].”

Resort Village of Cochin Councillor David Stillar says there were two cubs wandering around the village Tuesday morning. He saw the other one walking in front of his house.

“We have bears walking through all the time,” he said.

He saw the mother bear Monday, but she was near the Lighthouse going across the highway with the cubs.

He reminds people who see any bears to report it to the conservation officer so the animals can be safely rounded up and moved to another location.

Stillar says it is not uncommon for bears to be walking through the Cochin area based on the location.

The village reminds people to make sure their garbage bins are sealed so there is no food accessible that could attract animals.

“We get lots of wildlife wandering through,” Stillar added.

He said in the spring time and over the summer bears on occasion do walk through the village, as well as moose and other animals.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow