By Jason Markusoff, Calgary Herald February 2, 2009 7:29 PMCALGARY - More grizzly bears than ever were killed last year in Alberta - by motorcycle, train, illegal hunters and euthanasia.
It was the worst year for human-related fatalities for the at-risk species in the province since the government banned the grizzly hunt three years ago.
With only 500 or fewer believed to exist in Alberta, conservationists aren’t sure how many more years of 19 grizzly fatalities per year their population can withstand, and they’re demanding the province do more to protect the bears.
People caused nine deaths the year before.
The newly released statistic puzzled provincial officials, after years of their Bearsmart education program. No environmental conditions seemed to make the bears more eager to come in contact with humans, said Darcy Whiteside, spokesman for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.
“There’s no specific reason as to why this year was any different from last year or the year before - besides that it’s just a natural fluctuation in the data,” he said.
“It’s not natural, of course,” Whiteside quickly added.
Carl Morrison of the group Action Grizzly Bear suggested the deaths may total more than five per cent of all grizzlies in Alberta, since it’s normal for many human-caused deaths to go uncounted.
“Obviously, that’s fundamental in recovering the species: that we gain more bears than we lose each year,” Morrison said Monday. “And with the numbers of bears we saw disappear last year, that’s not the case.”
He accused the province of not doing enough and taking too long with its bear recovery program, which has been in the works since 2002. The official count that could mean the grizzly is threatened or endangered won’t be complete this year, and the province is still consulting with various groups on how - or whether - to limit access on certain roads within key bear habitats.
Last year’s human-related grizzly mortalities were the most since 2005, when 10 of the 23 deaths were by licensed hunters in the last year of the legal grizzly hunt
In 2008, six grizzlies were put down because they were had attacked or otherwise posed risks, another six were killed in self-defence, and four by road or rail accident. Others were killed by aboriginal subsistence hunters - including one tranquilized and therefore inedible bear - in an illegal kill, or for unknown reasons.
University of Calgary biologist Robert Barclay, who helped craft the province’s recovery program and now sits on its scientific advisory committee for grizzlies, said 19 deaths last year is “a worrying number,” but said it was hard to measure whether that would have lasting effects on the species.
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