Two sub-adult grizzly cubs who first visited Nelson last fall won't be making further trips into the city.
Conservation officer Jason Hawkes told the Star the two male grizzlies were trapped and euthanized late last week, after the bears charged a Perrier Road resident.
The two bears, who had identifying ear tags, were confirmed to be part of the family of grizzlies who were relocated after roaming the city for nearly a month in September of 2010.
The grizzlies were originally spotted in the Mountain Station area in early May, but had been sighted in residential garbage on Granite Road a few days before they were put down.
Hawkes said Bear Aware coordinator Joanne Siderius went door to door in the area to encourage residents to better manage their garbage but "unfortunately it didn't work."
"There was some garbage available in the Granite Road/Knox Road area and the Perrier Road area and the bears got into the garbage and continued to get food conditioned."
On May 25 the bears broke into a garage on Perrier Road, seeking garbage. The bears then left the area, but when a resident came out to clean up the mess the cubs returned and charged him.
Culvert traps were set up later that night, and by morning the cubs were dead.
Hawkes said the bears were put down rather than relocated because they were highly food conditioned, in an area with plenty of attractants, and showing aggression towards humans.
"The other main thing too is they were already trans-located once and given the opportunity to live out their lives in the wild, and they came back," he added.
He added Nelsonites should think about what they're doing that's bringing bears to the city — and then change that behaviour.
"I'm surprised at the amount of garbage that's available in a community like Nelson, and I know we as a community can do better," he said.
"It's not that the bears want to come down and get into the garbage. It's readily available, it starts on the outskirts of town, and it only takes one or two people on a street and that brings the bears in."
Since the bears were put down, Hawkes says another grizzly with ear tags and a collar was spotted in the same area.
"There were no reports of it getting to garbage, it was just eating grass in someone's yard," he said, adding he suspects the bear is the lone male grizzly who was also trapped and relocated from the city last fall.