A male grizzly bear on the loose in Fort St. John, B.C., had to be shot by authorities concerned about its potential danger to humans. (Submitted by Jon Jorgenson)

The body of a widely-travelled grizzly bear shot and killed in downtown Fort St. John, B.C., will now be used for "ceremonial purposes" by a local First Nation.

The male bear had become a nuisance animal in its original territory near Canmore, in southern Alberta, coming too close to people as it wandered into backyards, golf courses and campgrounds.

Conservation authorities relocated the 150-kilogram bear to Banff National Park but it wandered back to Canmore.

The bear never attacked anyone in Canmore and was never violent, says Alberta senior wildlife biologist Jon Jorgenson. But it did not learn from aversion therapy, which included exposure to dogs, rubber bullets and small, loud explosive deterrents called cracker shells, Jorgenson said.

The bear was then fitted with a satellite tracking collar and trucked to northern Alberta, but its tendencies to stray into urban areas did not change with the new location.

It migrated from Alberta to Fort St. John, about 50 kilometres from the provincial border, ending up Sunday in Camarlo Park in a heavily residential part of the city, close to a public school.

Grizzly bears can be much more dangerous than the more common black bear, and human contact with wild grizzlies can often be deadly.

'You don't want the bear to suffer'

Police said they tried unsuccessfully a number of times to trap the animal.

"After we exhausted all efforts to capture the bear, we had to put it down," said Fort St. John RCMP Cst. Jacklyn Passerell.

"Obviously you don't want the bear to suffer. It took four shots to put him down," Passerell said.

But the bear's body will now be put to use by a native group.

"We always get requests from First Nations communities for animal parts for ceremonial purposes," said Nick Baccante, fish and wildlife section head for the B.C. Environment Ministry.

"They have a permit to use the hide," Baccante said. "It is good the animal is serving a purpose even after its dead."

Fort St. John is about 1,200 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

With files from Betsy Trumpener.