A resident of Jasper, Sylvie McKenzie was attacked by a 400-pound grizzly on June 12, 2014 near highway 16 just past the townsite. There were two bears. One crossed and then the other grizzly, a male, charged the car when he perceived that the vehicle was between him and the other female grizzly. “The bear went on his hind legs and with full force he slammed my car with his front paws.” said Sylvie. She saw the bear’s teeth and paws, and the look on the angry animal’s face that said “go away.” McKenzie later learned the grizzly had dented two side panels, causing about $5,500 in damage. “Apparently, I’m at zero fault and (insurance) is covering everything,” she said. It was the second time that morning the grizzly had charged a vehicle. Parks Canada was told of a similar incident that occurred about an hour before McKenzie’s encounter, also on Highway 16.
There are about 10 “encounters” with bears every year in the park, where bears threaten or charge humans, sometimes making contact and sometimes not. There can be twice as many encounters with elk.
Bear mating season runs between approximately May 15 and July 15, and male bears will be particularly aggressive if something gets in their way, Malcolm said. There are about 110 grizzly bears in the park and 70 black bears. Visitors to the park are told not to exit their vehicles during bear season.
There have been more bear sightings in the park’s valley over the past three years, Malcolm said, in part the result of weather that has sent bears searching the valley for food outside of snow-covered alpine areas. Once they find easy-to-access vegetation along roadways, pipelines, or railway tracks, it can be hard to convince the animals not to stay.
From June 12, 2014 article in the Vancouver Sun.