Photo contributed
Drivers on Lougheed Highway didn't know whether to grin or bear it when they spotted a strange sight last Wednesday afternoon.
That's because it looked like a bear had hitched a ride in the back of a City of Port Moody pickup truck. Certainly Heather Libbey thought so when she snapped a picture of a bruin in the bed of the truck with its paws on top of the cab on the drivers side as they approached Falcon Street. Libbey emailed a picture to the Tri-City News and said she thought the bear was dead, but she wasn't so sure.
"A very weird and rare sighting to say the least," Libbey wrote. "it was definitely real."
She was right. It was a real bear. But not a real, live bear.
The stuffed bear was being transported back to the Conservation Officer Service detachment in Maple Ridge after hibernating for a couple of months in Port Moody, according to city acting parks general manager Doug Ross. The city had used the black bear mount for its Bear Essentials seminar held in April and then again for a Bear Essentials information display during Public Works Day on May 26.
Bear Essentials provides education and awareness about bear behaviour and how the community can help prevent encounters.
