Orphaned bears sent to B.C. zoo spur debate

Celebrating the arrival of three orphaned Alberta grizzly cubs, the Greater Vancouver Zoo is holding a naming contest for the bears.

But while she’s happy the trio has survived the loss of their mother in early May in the Crowsnest Pass, bear rehabilitation expert Angelika Langen said it’s disappointing the animals weren’t sent to her wildlife shelter at Smithers, B.C., to be groomed for a return to the wild.

“It’s better than being killed but I would much rather have them in rehab,” said Langen, co-founder of the Northern Lights Wildlife Society.

“It would have been three more bears here — it’s a little upsetting.”

After their mother was shot by a hunter who was reportedly seeking other game and acting in self-defence, the cubs — two female and one male — were sent to the Calgary Zoo, which transferred them to the Vancouver-area attraction.

“We are happy to announce they are healthy, playful and settling into their new GVZOO home,” the Greater Vancouver Zoo’s website says of the nowfive-month-old cubs.

Now that they’ve been wards of two zoos, the cubs can’t be rehabilitated for a future in nature, said Langen.

“It’s too late. They’ve had way too much (human) exposure — you can’t reverse that,” she said.

She said her shelter is the only one in North America rehabilitating grizzlies, which require larger, sturdier enclosures, more focused and minimized human contact, and an 18-month stay before being returned to the wild.

Since 2007, her facility has been conducting a grizzly bear rescue pilot project with the B.C. government that’s so far aided 25 bears.

But those numbers are too small and followup too limited to collect data that could deem the program a success, though their work has shown promise, said Langen.

“It takes a long time because we don’t have a lot of bears,” she said.

“We know they do well for the first year after release but after that, we don’t know.”

Ideally, she said, orphaned grizzlies like those three cubs would be rehabilitated in Alberta, but no facilities capable of accepting the species exist in the province.

And there’s no agreement between the two provinces to return bears to Alberta that have been hosted by B.C. shelters, said Langen.

“We could be an interim solution until there’s an Alberta facility and people trained for that,” she said.

Conservationist John Marriott said he’s been working with the Alberta government to introduce grizzly rehabilitation in the province.

“But we have no progress on a grizzly bear recovery plan,” said Marriott, co-founder of the group Exposed Wildlife Conservancy.

The loss of two female cubs to the B.C. zoo, he said, is also a blow to Alberta’s threatened grizzly bear population that sits under 1,000. He said captivity is inhumane and psychologically damaging to grizzlies.

Zoos have argued their role in grizzly conservancy is a positive one, with Calgary Zoo spokeswoman Laurie Archambault saying “science and animal welfare best practices suggest juvenile grizzly cubs will do best and have the longest life when they are in a zoo environment.”

Officials with the Greater Vancouver Zoo and Alberta Environment and Parks didn’t provide comment.