Grizzly bears left: photo Wayne Lynch. Photo top: Michael Wheatly. Grizzly bears bottom: John Marriot.
Grizzlies need protection on both sides of the border
Grizzly bears hold a certain place in our hearts – a revered yet feared beast of up to 375 kg which can stand 6 feet tall and conjures up images of rugged and unspoiled wilderness. A subspecies of brown bear, grizzlies historically ranged from Alaska down to Mexico and as far east as Manitoba. Unfortunately, human fear of the grizzly and encroachment of their habitat has left the grizzly virtually non-existent in Canada's southern provinces outside of British Columbia (BC) and Alberta. The few remaining populations of grizzly that straddle the Canada-US border in BC and Alberta are in trouble, and need our actions to help them recover.
The plight of grizzlies in southern BC and southern Alberta was not grave until the time of the gold rush. From 1850 to 1860 thousands of grizzlies were slaughtered and the population never recovered. Any hope of recovery without human assistance was dashed in the past 50 years by habitat destruction caused primarily by road building, logging, oil and gas extraction, and development in the back-country.
Photos Michael Wheatley.
Perhaps more than any other animal, grizzlies need abundant wilderness to survive. Although tolerant of a certain degree of development, grizzlies are intolerant of any kind of sustained mechanized human activity, especially roads and trails used by motorized vehicles 1 and higher elevation old-growth logging 2.
In the past 20 years, intensive use of back-country roads and trails by motorized vehicles, wilderness off-roading, and fire supression has further imperilled grizzlies. Senseless trophy hunting also has negatively impacted many grizzly populations, although some BC populations and all Alberta grizzlies are now legally protected from hunting. Illegal hunting is an unknown factor, but the best scientific estimates 3 suggest that up to 25% of human-caused grizzly kills are from illegal hunting (see graph on the right). Logging is still a problem for grizzlies but a manageable one given the bear’s tolerance for some logging, society’s increasing distaste for old-growth logging and the increasing expense of logging in remote areas. Thus the biggest current threat to grizzlies is from increasing motorized human access, and associated developments like ski resorts in the back-country and highways that impede grizzly movement.
Accurate grizzly population estimates do not exist. However, most scientists agree that about 12,000-17,000 grizzlies exist in BC 4 and about 500-700 grizzlies exist in Alberta 5. Less than 500 bears remain in the five Canadian populations featured in this report.
Grizzly populations still exist in every rugged north-south mountain range that crosses the US border. These five populations in the southern sections of the Canadian Rocky, Purcell, Selkirk, Granby and Cascade mountains are only fragments of what they once were. All these populations, except the Southern Rockies, number less than 100 bears and some, like the North Cascades population near Hope, BC, number in the teens. These populations need immediate help if they are going to survive.
