Recreational cavers engaged in bat research tripped upon the skeleton of a black bear within a dark cave system in the Chilliwack River Valley.
“It was exciting and unexpected,” said caving enthusiast Charly Caproff, a recent bachelor’s graduate from the environmental program at Simon Fraser University. “It didn’t smell at all, and there was no remaining flesh. It had probably been in there a while.”
Four members of the Chilliwack River Valley Cavers club visited the cave as part of research to investigate the habitat of bats — threatened by the approach of white-nose syndrome, the fungal disease that has killed millions of the mammals. The cavers spotted no bats, but deployed a monitoring device that can log their activity.
Club member Justin Saukarookoff discovered the black bear skeleton about 50 metres inside the cave system after squeezing through a tight passage. “I became quite startled and was in a brief moment of panic,” he said in a written account of last weekend’s trip. “I had to get a little closer to identify that it was a bear and not human.”
He added: “It is doubtful that he (bear) went through the same squeeze as we did. After some looking around, it really appears that there was another entrance but it’s currently blocked off.”
Exactly when and why the bear wandered far into the cave system is unknown, but it may have been old, sick or injured. Bears on the B.C. coast are not thought to use caves for denning.
This particular cave was originally surveyed in 1994, Saukarookoff noted, adding this might mark the first time the skeleton has been discovered.
“There were no footprints around, so I don’t think it had been (human) disturbed,” Caproff added.
While it’s unusual to find a bear skeleton in a cave, investigations of caves on Haida Gwaii revealed the ancient skull of a grizzly bear, a species no longer found within the archipelago.
The B.C. government has consistently refused to pass cave-protection legislation that would protect caves and other karst features. The B.C. government’s Great Bear Rainforest agreement, announced in February, has been criticized for failing to adequately protect subterranean karst.
Karst refers to soluble rocks such as limestone and marble formed by naturally acidic water seeping through the subsurface calcium carbonate rock. The process can form caves or caverns, passageways and fantastic but easily damaged speleothems such as columns, curtains, flowstone, soda straws, stalactites and stalagmites.
Postmedia is not revealing the name of the Chilliwack Valley cave or its location to protect it from vandalism or accidental damage. Enthusiasts are urged to join established clubs (chilliwackcaving.com) to ensure proper caving practices are followed.
