by Lyonel Doherty

It was straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, but the consequences could have been grave.

The grizzly was on a “dead run” towards John and Mary Theberge and a group of students during a hike in the Yukon. Strangely, the bruin ran right past a sheep that could have provided a tasty meal. But it wanted those humans.

With seconds to spare, someone fired a flare gun at the charging beast, but the flare went over its head without effect.

If anyone had a Plan B, it was sorely needed. Then someone pulled out an air horn. (Honestly, where do they keep this stuff?) Fortunately the blast scared the bear off and averted a potential tragedy.

This is one tale that makes the rounds when the wildlife biologists talk about their adventures.  They’ll never forget the time when another grizzly bear approached John and their four-year-old daughter. John immediately climbed a tree with the girl on his back. That little girl subsequently obtained her Ph.D in grizzly bear research. Their other daughter is also a wildlife biologist.

“We brain washed them,” joked Mary during a recent interview.

The world-renowned scientists from Oliver chose to live in the Shrike Hill area because they always wanted a home under ponderosa pines in the South Okanagan. They also like living in a “hot spot” of biodiversity with rare and endangered species.

The other reason: To promote the national park concept.

John and Mary have studied wildlife for more than 40 years – from the tropics to the arctic. They are best known for their research on the ecology of wolves and their prey. In fact, their 14-year study in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario represented the longest intensive study of wolves ever conducted in Canada.

They followed in the footsteps of their mentor Dr. Doug Pimlott, a leading wolf researcher and former professor of zoology at the University of Toronto.

John and Mary put radio collars on 178 wolves so they could track them. Sometimes these tracking sessions led them to the doors of hunters, where they found the collars and carcasses in basements and garages.

After five years of lobbying, they convinced the Ontario government to establish a no-kill zone around Algonquin Park, where wolves normally range.

In BC, John and Mary are disheartened to see wolves being used as a “scapegoat” in a misguided effort to protect caribou. “BC has a pathetic history of killing wolves,” John said, noting these carnivores serve a critical role in our ecosystems.

The Theberges wonder how many wolves will be decimated before we start to value their existence.

John and Mary have spent most of their adult lives using science to better understand and appreciate the rich diversity of life. They have seen firsthand how mankind is constantly undervaluing ecosystems, leading to their rapid degradation. For example, they can no longer drink from lakes and rivers because they are polluted.

That’s why they feel so strongly about national parks.

“The ecosystem does not belong to landowners, it belongs to all of us . . . (but) we are seeing land being destroyed at a disturbing rate,” John said.

He noted they are seeing the effects that cattle grazing has on native grasses, which are being destroyed. A national park would protect this ecosystem and provide a “living museum” for everyone to enjoy, he said.

Too often John and Mary witness how humans try to be masters of nature instead of being its steward. They point to the attitudes on urban deer management.

“We are tampering (with nature) so much that we don’t have the wisdom to regulate things properly,” Mary said.

John said they would like to see people approach nature with more humility, not from a management point of view. They believe nature is just too complex to manage, and technology isn’t the solution to our ills.