It’s a sad day for many people around the world. News has spread that Nakoda, the rare white grizzly bear who’s gained fame online, was killed by a motorist in British Columbia, Canada. The death is shocking, but some experts say it might have been the result of the bear getting too comfortable with humans.
The bear was tragically found dead by the roadside of the Trans-Canada Highway near the Lake O’Hara turnoff on June 8.
Global News reports that the white grizzly officially died from internal injuries sustained from the collision. In even more tragic news, the white grizzly’s two cubs were also killed in a vehicular collision only hours earlier on the same highway.
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Nakoda is believed to have died on June 6, the New York Times reports, but was found dead two days later.
Canada’s regional wildlife management team, Parks Canada, said that staff saw the mama bear run into the road in front of two cars after it was startled by a nearby train.
“One of those vehicles was in fact able to swerve and avoid a collision, but the vehicle traveling right behind it, that second vehicle, was unable to react in time and that vehicle struck the bear,” Parks Canada wildlife management specialist Saundi Stevens told Global News.
Nakoda, whom the wildlife group calls Bear 178, managed to escape and get herself over a fence. She was moving with a slight limp, but was alive. Officials hoped she would eventually recover, but she was later found dead when her GPS collar gave out a mortality signal.
Stevens explained that they decided not to intervene because a wildlife specialist thought it best to let Nakoda have time and space to heal. She said that bears often recover from serious injuries, including car accidents. Sadly, this time that wasn’t the case.
The team with Parks Canada also found Nakoda’s cubs dead from a separate car accident on June 6 at around 5:15 am.
The deaths are heartbreaking, but were a possible consequence of the bears getting too comfortable with humans. Nakoda has become a fixture on social media, causing the bear to be less wary of humans, the New York Times reports. The grizzly kept heading towards highways even though wildlife staff tried to keep her away. They started tracking her in 2022 when she learned how to climb a fence by the highway.
Officials took other steps to keep her safe, including moving the bear away from the highway three times since 2022, instituting a no-stopping zone and lowering speed limits to encourage people to be careful on the road. Sadly, Nakoda’s unique coloring prompted many people to stop and take pictures and she became habituated to humans — costing the bear her life.
“We recognize people come to see wildlife,” Stevens told the Times, “but there’s safe ways to view wildlife to prevent this.”
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