Forbidden fruit trees: Canadian national park urges locals to remove bear-attracting bushes

Black bears are reluctant to leave and tend to come back almost immediately when moved. Photograph: Bruce Montagne/Dembinsky Photo Associates/Alamy

The waning days of summer and a bounty of ripe fruit have pitted hungry black bears against park rangers in a fight over a Canadian mountain town’s fruit trees.

Residents living in the Jasper national park townsite have been warned that fruit trees on their properties are luring in black bears and need to be removed as soon as possible.