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Alberta grizzlies barely surviving, census shows
There are so few grizzly bears living in the Foothills that researchers fear their future is in jeopardy
GEOFF NIXON

From Monday's Globe and Mail

June 11, 2007 at 4:14 AM EDT

A unique census of grizzly bears in the Foothills and lower slopes of the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Alberta has found that the population is now so small that some experts question whether they will still be there in 100 years.

The new report estimates the number of grizzly bears living west and south of Calgary and south of Banff National Park, inside an approximately 7,600-square-kilometre stretch of land, at fewer than 100.

The estimate - backed by research techniques involving inventive DNA sleuthing that employs razor wire and a mix of rancid cow blood and liquefied fish - is the latest chapter in the continuing debate over the stewardship of grizzly bears within the province. It is trying to decide how to account for the grizzlies, how to accommodate industries that disrupt their habitat and lives, and how to keep them alive well into the future.

Brian Horejsi, a Calgary-based researcher and bear expertwho has been researching Alberta grizzlies since the early 1970s, said the latest population count suggests the southwestern population is potentially on the road to extinction.

"We're talking about a very, very limited number of bears that are keeping this bear population alive this year," Mr. Horejsi told The Globe yesterday.
"When you have those minute numbers - and they are minute - a mortality here, a bear hit by a train, a bear shot illegally or accidentally by an elk hunter - you are dealing with an envelope that is very, very narrow."

Starting in 2003, the province began looking at ways of maintaining its grizzly population, which also meant learning just how many there were throughout the province, in part because there were conflicting estimates of their numbers. Alberta also declared a three-year moratorium on grizzly hunting in March, 2006, in an effort to stave off any interference while it checked out the numbers.

The final numbers and their related report were released to the public last week.

"We halted the grizzly bear hunt and we are doing this analysis basically, to establish, accurately, as accurate as we possibly can, how many grizzly bears are actually in Alberta," said Darcy Whiteside, a spokesman for the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Development.

In order to get the numbers they needed, the researchers used a smelly treat - a two-to-one mixture of cow blood and fish - to lure the grizzlies.

The bait was surrounded by a thin layer of barbed wire mounted about a half-metre off the ground. When interested bears went to check out the enticing scent, the wire would scrape a few hairs off the backs of their fur coats. And since the bears' individual hairs contain valuable DNA, the researchers could then collect the hairs and very accurately count the number of unique bears that had visited the site.

Mr. Horejsi believes the numbers are accurate and has concluded that the southwestern population could potentially be gone in as soon as 50 to 100 years. He said that in typical bear populations, only about 15 per cent are capable of breeding in any particular year leaving very few bears available for reproducing in such a small population.

He also pointed out that while DNA testing can determine the number of bears, it cannot be used to find their age, meaning it is impossible to tell how big or small the local population of breeding-age grizzly bears may be.

Citing human interference and industrialization as the two big factors in holding back the grizzly population, Mr. Horejsi says he thinks protecting their wild habitat, perhaps reclaiming some human developments and maintaining the ban on hunting would be their best bet for survival.

"All of these things essentially are making what is fundamentally or innately good habitat, virtually insecure and unusable for bears and that is the crux of the matter," said Mr. Horejsi.

"It's a massive failure of management and worse yet, it's got the bears hanging on the edge of the rope."

Others agree that simply cutting back on hunting will not sufficiently improve the grizzly bears' survival prospects.

Bob Richards, a big-game outfitter who leads tours through parts of northwestern Alberta, said he thinks that despite the immediate effects of a moratorium on hunting, it is not a long-term solution for protecting the local population.

"The No. 1 impact to grizzly bear populations is [vehicle] access," said Mr. Richards, who lives in Airdrie, just north of Calgary.

"I don't mind, from an outfitting perspective, if the government were to shut down all vehicle access, all motorized access and that would probably be the No. 1 benefit to the grizzly bear population."

"I don't think it's a good long-term management plan," said Mr. Richards, of the hunting ban that comes without any efforts to roll back human access to the bears.

"I think it's more like a real quick Band-Aid, and everyone will feel comfortable with that, but, in the long-term, the grizzly bear population is still going to suffer."