Mounties Shoot Wrong Bear After Toddler Mauled in BC

Authorities in British Columbia are still hunting a black bear that mauled a 3-year-old girl in Maple Ridge, after confirming the bear shot by the Mounties that day was the wrong one. The child was playing on her family's back deck in the city east of Vancouver Sunday when the bear attacked. A parent intervened and chased it off, and the girl was airlifted to a hospital with what police described as "non-life-altering injuries." The RCMP said a bear observed in the area multiple times in the following 40 minutes was shot by officers, but a necropsy later showed it was not involved in the attack.

• "Based on the information available at the time, officers reasonably believed it was the same bear involved in the attack and made the decision to dispatch the animal to prevent further injury or loss of life," the Maple Ridge RCMP detachment said in a statement, per Fraser Valley Today.

Wildlife veterinarian Ken Macquisten tells the CBC that he's not surprised to hear that they got the wrong bear. "The RCMP definitely aren't bear experts," he says. Macquisten says police officers aren't trained in bear behavior and the bullets they use are unlikely to kill a bear with the first shot. "They are more likely to injure the bear than to kill it," he says. "That presents a real problem in itself because an injured bear, of course, is a more dangerous bear than a bear that's not injured." Lesley Fox of the Fur-Bearers conservation group says making "good decisions" under pressure is vital. Both she and Macquisten say more conservation officers should be hired to handle wildlife calls.

A specialized predator attack team has been deployed while the bear is still at large. "Officials continue to advise the public in the surrounding area to be aware and stay indoors," the RCMP said.

• The girl, Anaiyah Lekei, was bitten on the head, neck, and back. She underwent surgery and is expected to make a full recovery. Her mother, Andrea Lekei, tells Global News that her husband rushed to the patio after hearing the girl's "blood-curdling scream." "She was under the bear and the bear had already attacked and was mauling her and was about to go down for another bite and he was able to get the bear off of her," Lekei says. She says her husband managed to scare the bear off and shot it with a bow and arrow.