Peering into an Uncertain Future?
While this cub of the year may be looking only into the future, mom knows its best to be much, much, more wary of humans and to keep a watchful eye on them and how much they can mean to her immediate future...
Saving ANY endangered species is a challenging and at times daunting task. Saving endangered carnivores is even tougher - they wander over great distances and ignore wildlife "wildlife management unit" boundaries and even international borders, and they're often perceived to be in direct competition with humans for food or living space and are abused accordingly.
British Columbia, Canada is one of the Grizzly Bear's last remaining strongholds in North America. Yet there's strong reason to believe that even here grizzlies are in strong decline and may soon go the way of the Dodo bird if something isn't done, and done fast. Exacerbating the problem is the simple fact that NO ONE really has a good idea of how many bears are left in the province (or how fast they're declining). Ian McAllister of Pacific Wild (an excellent non-profit conservation organization) provides a succinct summary of the history of how the population estimates have been made and the factors confounding the results - interested readers should
check out his summary here.
The factors that are ultimately driving down the grizzly population are numerous and complexly interwoven, but can be boiled down to three primary causes:
1. Habitat Loss: Grizzlies need a lot of space and, unlike their cousins the black bear, normally don't coexist well with humans. Stopping habitat loss and human encroachment is an immensely difficult task - it relates to human population growth, human economic growth, and flies in the face of many of the social values western society has come to accept without asking sufficient questions. Unfortunately, suggesting a single definable action that can be taken at the individual level to directly stop the human encroachment on the habitat of the grizzly is virtually impossible and a little beyond the scope of this mini review...so read on for some "actionable" items...
2. Reduction of Food Supply of the Grizzlies: Take away the food for any species and, if no alternate can be found, they die. Simple. You can't find a better example of this than on the coast of British Columbia where the majority of British Columbia's grizzlies reside: one of their most critical food supplies is salmon - and humans (sub-species canadensis) are finding a way to ensure that lack of political will and short-sightedness guarantees that the salmon are driven to extinction. Fortunately many hard-working folks are doing their utmost to help save the salmon stocks AND evaluate the impact of declining salmon populations on carnivore populations. The Raincoast Conservation Foundation is doing their best to document the salmon-carnivore interaction through their "Salmon Carnivore Project" - helping to support Raincoast AND this project WILL help the bears -
check it out on Raincoast's website....
3. Direct Human-caused Mortality: Humans kill grizzlies - both unintentionally (via collisions with trains, cars, etc.) and intentionally through trophy hunting. While we can partially mitigate some of the accidental deaths, it is totally within our power to COMPLETELY STOP THE TROPHY HUNTING! How many bears are killed by trophy hunting in any given year? Well, in 2007, 430 grizzlies were killed in BC, with 363 of them taken by hunters (in many cases by affluent Americans and Europeans). To make matters worse, many estimate that for every bear taken, close to one other is wounded and later succumbs to its wounds and is never recovered. And this is 363 out of a population of 3,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 or 12,000 or...oh, yeah, NO ONE knows! The economic spin-off of those dead bears? Oh, about half of what each bear would be worth left alive (in terms of ecotourism and guided bear-viewing). Skeptical of the facts? Check them out here on the
website of Pacific Wild...
THE CRITICAL POINT: Human caused mortality of grizzly bears via trophy hunting is a significant source of grizzly mortality and
STOPPING THE HUNT is the simplest form of direct action we can take to help save the bears!
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Please sign the Petition to Stop the Trophy Hunt!
I sincerely thank you. And please help to fight the good fight by spreading the word about the petition...
Brad
Comments
19 commentsSounds like you have a real mess on your hands there in BC. It's quite a different situation than here in Alaska, where populations are strong in many areas and even growing.
But we don't yet have so many people and our habitat loss isn't so horrid. The things your timber industry has done to prime fish and wildlife habitat may take generations to recover, which puts extra pressure on us to do what we can, where we can, on behalf of the animals and fish. I doubt enough can be done to reverse your trend in habitat destruction, so even more pressure will be mounted on wild populations.
Thanks for sharing and the link to the petition.
Thank you and well done. Even if I did not live in BC, I would still find great joy in supporting the conservation of grizzly bears.
Brad
Another excellent image! I have signed the petition and my wife will also be signing.
Wayne
Brad
I have signed the petition.
Thank you kindly for signing the petition. I am in no position to debate the trade practices of the logging industry in Canada vs. the United States. My primary concern with logging is that it be done sustainably and in a fashion that protects the ecosystem and all its inhabitants now and in years that come! It would seem to me that logging has the potential to be a totally self-renewing and with a perpetual harvest, as long as it is done at a rate that matches the idiosyncrasies of the habitat being exploited. My naive guess is that the big trick would be do develop an economic system within the logging industry that can function at this rate. But logging is TOTALLY outside my area of expertise...
Cheers...thanks again for signing the petition!
Brad
The point is that the shooting of bears is but the tip of the iceberg. Yeah, I agree that the population is so depressed that shooting is a concern. But the condition of their coastal habitat is so dire, due to horrid logging, that you could stop the shooting tomorrow and still lose the whole population. The petition is a nice "feel good" and appropriate, but will do virtually nothing to solve the problem. It's a good first step, but a small one. Add elements to deal with the rotten logging practices and advocate mega-millions for habitat restoration, and I'll sign.
Thanks for the feedback. Other major initiatives are underway, but to roll all of them into one single petition would doom it to failure. I pointed out in my original commentary that habitat loss was the number one problem, and have no disagreement with you that logging is a huge issue. Major tracts of forest HAVE been set aside (after HUGE efforts by conservation groups and a lot of help from concerned Americans) and forestry practices ARE changing - but more does have to be done. I personally think a potentially bigger issue for the grizzlies is the salmon situation (collapse of the salmon stocks) and there's many people fighting this one (see the link in my commentary for the work underway by Raincoast).
Mortality through trophy hunting IS a significant source of mortality for the bears - but because of the wild discrepancies in the population estimates it's a little hard to say definitively how significant it is as a mortality factor. But, it's the one easiest to control, at least until we have a much better handle on the real population sizes...
I'm quite sure if you read my commentary closely you'll find there's nothing in it that's defamatory against any group and that it's factual and balanced.
Cheers...
Brad
I'm shocked that the BC government allows this! I think of the US as being full of ignorant people, who care little for the environment, but clearly we are better off than you! (Not that the problem lies with the people, it is entirely the government's fault.) Once again, thank you for your summary of the problem, and when I have time, I want to read more on it myself. I looked at the sites you linked to, and they look great too. I watched both videos on the Pacific Wild site... they are great, but really sad. I just don't understand how anyone could pull the trigger, and kill such a beautiful animal (or, as Vincent said, any animal). I've signed the petition, and will get my family to do the same. I wish you luck in your fight, and thanks for sharing this...
-Cam
I was not aware of the problems that grizzlies face in BC and was surprised to hear this. I read the information (from the web links) and to me, this just does not make any sense. I hope this effort will bring more awareness to this so proper wildlife management can be implemented (once population numbers are established). I am not against hunting but lets at least take a look at what's out there before it is too late. I have signed the petition and will hope that rational minds will at least give this a chance.
By the way one of the best vacation trips I ever took was a wildlife viewing excursion outside of Haines Alaska to see eagles and the highlight of the trip was seeing my first grizzly.
One thing I did not expect is the promotion of that petition drive/coffee-table book . I was a bit shocked to see it in the image galleries, so I hesitated to respond. I agree with Hank, so I did a bit of research before commenting, in an attempt to provide some balance -- "the other side of the story". That link is below.
I have spent nine years in ecological research and another 31 years in natural resources management. During that time I have witnessed many good people with the best of intentions support unnecessary and sometimes counter-productive management actions because they seemed to be the simplest, common-sense solutions. Ecology is not simple, but its application is based on fairly simple principles, using all the scientific data available, objectively evaluated. I think that any objective ecologist (a scientist without an axe to grind) would agree that management actions to increase numbers of any organism in a population facing habitat loss and food shortages is a recipe for disaster, without first addressing those principle ecological needs. More than ever, our magnificent wildlife and the world that we share with them deserve and indeed require the best scientific management. Since management of public resources depends largely on public support, the future of our world depends on an informed public. So to promote some balance in consideration of this topic, I would suggest that readers visit the following website to see all the effort that the British Columbia Ministry of Environment puts into maintaining sustainable bear populations.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/grzz/index.htm
The Ministry may not be perfect (especially when it comes to explaining their actions to the public) but their methods, including convening an independent Grizzly Bear Scientific Panel, are convincing. You would never guess from reading the text between the gruesome photos of Pacific Wild, that the Ministry has decided to close several areas to bear hunting completely, due real needs, including public desires, or that they are clarifying regulations to ensure protection of the white (Kermode) phase of the black bears province-wide. There is so much more that would take up too much space here from both points of view, but I think this information provides some balance in the discussion now.
Thanks for your feedback. I'll take this offline with you - a response would be straying way too far away from photography. I've had my say on this already and am totally comfortable with what I have already said being my "final word" here!
Cheers...
Brad
A shocking number of grizzlies are being killed in the Bella Coola Valley on the central coast of British Columbia. Most of these bears are being killed as so called "problem" bears. But the real problem is the people, as usual. They leave out bear attractants and then the bear pays the price with its life. One guy left a tub of salmon on his back deck and then shot a mother and three cubs that came for the fish. Other people can't seem to bother removing the apples from their trees but don't seem to find it any bother at all to shoot the bears that come for the fruit. Another person couldn't be bothered to install their electric fence to protect their livestock. You get the idea. The same sad old story.
This situation is exacerbated by the fact that the BC government has slashed virtually all funding for bear smart programs in the province, that no conservation officer is currently posted to this valley and that the Wildlife Act has some serious loopholes that make it difficult to convict the bear killers.
Raincoast Conservation Foundation is trying to get this excessive, out of control "control" kill under control as part of its efforts to protect BC's declining grizzly population. Raincoast has posted a letter on their site that you can automatically send to the BC government by just filling in your name etc and clicking send. This letter calls on the government to reinstate bear smart funding, post a CO in the valley and close the loopholes in the law.
We are hoping to inundate the government with this letter, so please head to this link - http://www.raincoast.org/2009/12/control-kills-of-grizzlies-out-of-control/ - and speak out for the grizzlies. You don't have to be Canadian to do this. And it will just take a moment of your time. Your letter will also be cc'ed from Raincoast's site to Gary Coons (the local MLA), the Central Coast Regional District (the local municipal government) and the Bella Coola Valley Tourism Association (which promotes bear viewing in the area).
While the trophy hunt certainly takes the largest toll on grizzlies province-wide and has to be stopped immediately, in the inhabited Bella Coola Valley, the unsustainable and preventable killing of so called "problem" grizzlies takes a greater toll than the hunt.
Thanks - and please forward this link to others concerned about wildlife.
Roberta Olenick
Never Spook the Animals Wildlife Photography
Vancouver, BC
http://www.neverspook.com
Excellent post, much appreciated and needed! However in a far less eloquent and thorough way, these are many of the points I was eluding to in a post that you took exception to, when I suggested the bears were facing harsh conditions which threatened their survival.
Great, now we are on the same page!
Awesome post!
Shane