I'm engaged in a firm (but polite) discussion with Faisal Moola (Suzuki Foundation) on a friend's Facebook wall about the validity of BC's grizzly bear hunt.
Here's the research that has been provided by him.
Faisal Moolahi Catherine Morris - your friend Glenn is correct. Bear #148 was legally shot and killed by a trophy hunter in BC, after it wandered into the province from a protected area on the Alberta side of the border. The bear was protected from being shot as long as it remained on the Alberta side of the border, as Alberta has had a moratorium on the hunting of grizzly bears for sometime - explicitly - out of concern about the precipitous decline in grizzly populations in the province. Every single grizzly population in Alberta is now ranked at risk, and Bear148 was critical to the recovery of her home population (it was originally from the Bow Valley) as she was a reproductive female with the potential of having as many as 10 cubs in her lifetime. Female grizzlies are in fact the reproductive engines of grizzly populations. The species is among the slowest reproducing mammal species on the continent. Female bears reproduce late in life and cub mortality is high. For this reason, we need to do everything we can to prevent the mortality of female bears, like Bear148, as they are so important to sustaining the health of local populations (which as I mentioned are already in precipitous decline in Alberta). Despite their critical importance to the health of grizzly populations, over 30% of the grizzlies killed in BC are females (there is no prohibition on shooting a female bear). Your friend's comment that that there is no conservation concern is misplaced. There is no consensus on the number of grizzly bears in BC, because it is so difficult and expensive to estimate the size of local populations. I have been monitoring grizzly numbers for over 15 years, and on a number of occasions, the BC government has had to revise its estimates downwards. In fact, independent biologists at the University of Calgary have stated, on record, that the number of grizzlies in the province could be half of what the government thinks due to the difficulties in accurately estimating population sizes. In addition, the total number of grizzlies, at the provincial scale, is less important than how many grizzlies (especially females) are found at the local population scale, because so many populations in BC are effectively isolated from one another by roads, rail, townsites etc. Research by my colleagues at the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University and the University of Calgary have shown that the actual mortality of grizzly bears, at the hands of trophy hunters, regularly exceeds government limits - in other words hunters are killing more bears than the government plans for. This is a problem, because, as I mentioned, grizzlies are not a fast-reproducing species and as a result can not easily recover if their population has been over-killed in a given area. I know, from personal experience, many places in BC that no longer have grizzlies due to over-hunting in the past. Finally, I urge your friend Glen not to put too much stock in how the government is managing grizzly populations. Just as an example: 1) the European Union has sanctioned BC because of its mismanagement of grizzly populations and has banned the importation of trophies from bears hunted in the province; 2) no recovery planning is happening in the province, despite the fact that 9 populations are on the verge of winking out (one has actually disappeared already north of Vancouver; another is about to east of the city). 3) the BC government is obligated, under its current policy, to create a network of 11 large no-hunting zones in the province. Only three have been created (in the early 2000s) because of advocacy by local First Nations - these are now being expanded by the NDP government, but none have been established anywhere else in the province - including in places where over-hunting continues to happen. Your friend can read more in a series of peer-reviewed reports that we have published, including policy critiques. Finally, the BC Auditor General is so concerned, that it has now opened a performance audit of the BC government's management of our grizzly populations. This is unheard of and has not been done for any other species in the country.
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/wi...grizzly-bears/
Faisal Moola This map is important. It shows where pervasive over-mortality continues to happen because of trophy hunting in BC: It was published by my colleagues at SFU, UVic, and U of Calgary in the academic journal PLOSone.
Faisal Moola Published peer-reviewed critique of grizzly management policy in BC: http://davidsuzuki.org/.../failing-bcs-grizzlies-report.../
Failing B.C.'s Grizzlies: Report Card and Recommendations for Ensuring a Future…
DAVIDSUZUKI.ORG
Faisal Moola This map shows the location of all of the threatened and endangered populations of grizzlies in Alberta and BC. Every single population in Alberta is now ranked at risk by the Alberta Government, including the population from where Bear148 came from. Nine populations in BC are similarly at risk - including several that will likely go extinct within the decade if we don't do something to reverse their decline. Grizzlies have already been eliminated from 18 % of British Columbia due to over-hunting and habitat loss, and the species has lost over half of its historical range in North America. At one point there were grizzlies as far south as mexico and as far east as manitoba. They are all gone.
Does anyone know if there is any credible opposing research or verified "holes" in the research? I don't have days to sift through research findings so thought I would tap into the HBC collective brain.
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Originally Posted by btridge
