What are the Bears eating today?

by Derek Ryder, Wildlife Ambassador & IGA Interpretive Guide

In 2020, there was still shepherdia around until mid-September in some spots. Not in 2021 or 2022. In the past two years, the shepherdia season has been… terrible, especially in the Bow Valley area. This year however, the shepherdia crop was great, and came early, so bears are now longing for the next best berry. It comes in later than shepherdia, and this year appears VERY plentiful.

Every year, starting in late August or September – not long after the shepherdia berries are all eaten or have dried up – bears turn to another popular food: the berries of the Red Osier Dogwood bush, Cornus sericea. This is a plant with many names. It’s also called red brush, red willow, redstem dogwood, redtwig dogwood, red-rood, American dogwood, creek dogwood, and western dogwood. There are many other kinds of Dogwood in North America, but only Red Osier and its much smaller cousin, the Bunchberry, grow in Alberta. Red Osier Dogwoods look willow-like, but have distinctive red stems that turn even more red after the first frosts. They grow in dense bushes, as seen above.

They have little clusters of tiny flowers in the spring. The berries first appear in July and are green, but they turn white as they ripen. The photo to the left is typical of a Dogwood in mid-switch. You can see flowers, green berries and even tiny white ones. Dogwood leaves turn a brilliant red in the fall. With the pretty leaves, white berries and red stems, they are a popular ornamental plant for gardens – but remember they are a bear attractant! If you have one, you MUST cut the berries off before they turn white. Moose and birds like the berries, too. Moose browse on the plant generally in the winter.

Dogwoods like it moist. They commonly line creek beds, stream edges and lakeshores. The name “Osier” is from the French “osiere”, meaning “that which grows in a stream bed” after all. At Lac Des Arc’s campground, the lake’s edge is lined with Dogwood, and the local bears know it. Fall closures are common. Dogwood is also common in Willow Rock campground in Bow Valley Provincial Park and Three Sisters Campground in Dead Man’s Flats. All three commonly have fall bear warnings and closures. All three are slated for volunteers to go cut the Dogwood out this month. But it grows back; like shepherdia, it’s a very hard plant to kill.

The white berries are edible by humans but bitter. They were combined by native Canadians with sweeter berries to make them more palatable. Native Canadians also smoked the tender inner white bark after it was dried. They would use the red outer bark for tanning and dying, and would weave the pliable stems into baskets.

Click here to find out ‘What the bears are eating’ in other months!