Boo the runaway grizzly bear, who has escaped twice from a wildlife refuge at the Kicking Horse Resort near Golden, could be spared a life in captivity if B.C.'s environment minister has his way.

Barry Penner says Boo should be left to roam freely in the mountains, but fitted with a global positioning system collar so the public could track his movements on the internet.
 
"This could help accomplish the goal of public safety, but also provide a scientific benefit to the ministry specialists that work in this area about where this bear will go in the wild," said the minister.

Boo tunnelled under a fence to team up with a female grizzly in early June, but was recaptured. He later escaped again, breaking through a 181-kilogram steel door and other barriers.
(Kicking Horse Mountain Resort/Canadian Press)

The resort had said it planned to neuter the four-year-old bear when he's caught again.

But Penner doubts that would work. "This is a determined bear, and simply neutering the bear may not be enough to make him satisfied to sit around."

One determined bear

In his first escape, Boo tunnelled under a fence to team up with a female grizzly.

He was soon recaptured, and placed in a much more secure enclosure.

However, the young bear escaped again, this time breaking through a 181-kilogram steel door, scrambling over two electric fences and climbing a four-metre barrier.

Penner says he should know in about a week whether the idea is feasible.

The bear was orphaned by a hunter in northern B.C. in 2002. 

He and a male sibling were initially taken to the Grouse Mountain Wildlife Refuge in North Vancouver before being shipped to the Kicking Horse Resort. The sibling died at the refuge in 2004.