Mother of rare, white-headed cub killed Sept. 3 by train, cubs presumed dead

Wildlife experts say the death of a mother grizzly bear and her two cubs — including a rare blond-headed grizzly — in Banff National Park is a major loss to the population.

Parks Canada has said that an adult bear was struck and killed Sept. 3 by a Canadian Pacific Railway train on a rail line through the Alberta park.

So many animals get killed through the train tracks in Banff National Park! Why can we not come up with a solution for that!!

“She was about 10 years old and had been known to Parks Canada,” Dwight Bourdin, resource conservation manager with the agency’s Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay field unit, said in an interview last week.

The bear, known as No. 143, spent most of her time in the backcountry of Banff and the adjacent Yoho and Kootenay national parks in British Columbia, Bourdin said.

She was spotted earlier this summer with two cubs, including the one with a blond head and brown body. But Bourdin said neither cub has been spotted since before the mother bear was killed.

Parks Canada estimates on its website that there are 65 grizzly bears in Banff National Park.