The B.C. Conservation Officer Service has confirmed that the lone grizzly bear roaming Texada Island has been shot and killed, allegedly by a member of the public on the island's north end.
"The COS can confirm it is the tagged grizzly bear seen on Texada Island in recent weeks, and that it was shot," according to COS on Tuesday (July 15). "The bear will undergo a necropsy."
The young grizzly, nicknamed "Tex" by locals who worried about the bear's safety and were urging for it to be translocated a third time, was spotted on Texada more than a month ago after swimming over from the Powell River area.
In 2024, the bear was relocated twice. First, last September, from Gibsons, and then from Sechelt – both times to a coastal area to keep it away from people. However, on both occasions, the grizzly bear made its way back to urban areas along the Sunshine Coast in just a few weeks.
READ MORE: North Island First Nation offers a home to wayward grizzly bear roaming Texada Island
The grizzly bear's death comes as work was underway with First Nations on a new plan to translocate the bear to another remote area up the coast, said Randene Neill, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. However, before they could pinpoint its location, they received reports about the bear's death.
"This isn’t how we wanted this to end," Neill said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.
Since the young male grizzly bear was spotted on the small, normally bear-free island, Tex has garnered a social media following with the "Save Tex - The Texada Island Grizzly Bear" Facebook page and other social media groups.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of the Grizzly Bear Foundation, said that while the incident is tragic, it represents an opportunity to review policies and procedures for interpreting bear behaviour and translocating bears, ensuring the best practices for their welfare, conservation, and coexistence are used.
"Tex wasn't set up for success because the first relocations put him back where he'd come from, and if you know anything about (bear) biology, he's just going to be pushed out again," Scapillati said.
However, the fact that the province and First Nations began working together on another solution to translocate Tex could become a new model of working with First Nations to create better conservation outcomes across British Columbia, he said.
"Indigenous culture and ethics are different from Western culture and ethics around wildlife," he said. "We're in an ecological crisis and really need more viewpoints and ideas."
In a video statement Tuesday, COS Insp. Simon Gravel said when the investigation into the bear's death is complete, more information will be released. The investigation is being conducted with the RCMP.
The Mirror reached out to the Mamalilikulla First Nation and Tla'amin Nation but did not receive a response.
If anyone has information about the grizzly bear's killing, they are encouraged to report it to the RAPP line at 1-877-952-7277.
