CANMORE -- A woman killed by a grizzly bear Sunday made a split-second decision to climb a tree - a choice that failed to save her life.

Isabelle Dube was running with two friends Sunday on a popular hiking trail in Canmore, 90 km west of Calgary, when the group came upon the bear.

"They came within 20 to 25 metres of the bear when they first saw it," Dave Ealey of Alberta Sustainable Resource Development told reporters. "As they communicated to each other as to 'What do we do?' they started backing up. Isabelle apparently chose to climb a tree.

"The other two continued to back up. They backed up out of the area to a point where they were no longer able to see their friend and they said they were going to go get some help because she was basically shouting at the bear, because the bear was close to her."

The two friends ran almost a kilometre to the clubhouse of the SilverTip Golf Course to get help.


A Fish and Wildlife officer responded, and found the bear with Dube. The officer shot the bear.

Ealey wouldn't speculate if Dube made the right call.

"Who knows? Some people are not that adept at climbing. They may choose the wrong tree. Bears have the potential of being able to get you out of a tree, and that's basically all I can say about that."

Provincial officials confirmed earlier the bear was the same one that had been relocated to a different part of its home range after it followed a woman. The bear was moved about 12 km, on the other side of a mountain range.

Ealey said the bear had been given a radio collar at that time. Wildlife officers knew as early as 5:30 a.m. Saturday that the bear had returned to the Canmore area.

"We knew where it was and where it was travelling," Ealey said. "But there had been no indication that it had been aggressive or persistent around people."

Dube, 35, was married and had a young daughter. She was the first person killed by a bear in Alberta since 1998.

That's sad.

Climbing a tree isn't a bad idea if it were a grizzly she encountered (grizzly bears don't climb as a rule). I wonder if she failed to get high enough or tried to get down and escape. Either way I feel for her family and young daughter.

Yeah that's gotta be a scary sight to almost literally your death climbing up the tree. My heart goes out to her family and daughter

I hope PETA chokes up on this story [:@]

That's too bad. I hate to hear stories like that. [&o]

Life's a bitch! Then ya die!


PETA could care less. They put people and animals on the same level. And usually put animals above human life. I feel for the family, but with strong anti-hunting organizations like PETA and such, and encroachment into wildlife areas, and expanding wildlife populations into human domains, it is just part of life.

no joke red im tired of peta and there........... well you know. My best wishes go to her family, very sad for a young girl to lose her momma like that

grizzlies and brown bears can climb fairly easily big bears tend to not climb as much i would guess because of their shear size and curve of the claws but smaller adult griz or brown bears can climb easily and do. a friend has a picture from kodiak of a brown bear going up a cottonwood tree to extract 2x4's , limbs and 2 deer from about 20' up. they lost 10 of 12 deer they shot to the bears.