Nuisance bear incidents increased with spring hunt
The spring bear hunt, which starts on May 1 and runs until June 15, was sold to Ontarians as a necessity to measure whether hunting bears in the spring reduces bear encounters with humans.
As far as marketing goes, it has worked pretty well. The politicians conjured up images of young children trapped in classrooms while hungry bears waited outside in the schoolyard as a daily occurrence, leaving us all convinced that our children’s safety is at stake.
A vivid scenario. Too bad none of it is true. Not only did nuisance bear occurrences increase in the first two years of the spring bear hunt in most districts where it was allowed in 2014 and 2015, but bear occurrences actually skyrocketed in the Greater Sudbury District after years of decline in the absence of a spring bear hunt. Sudbury district has persistently higher bear occurrences than any other district in Ontario, according to government records.
The Wynne government is aware of the increase in human-bear conflicts because the statistics come from provincial staff and from Ontario Provincial Police, who actually answer bear calls.
The police statistics for Sudbury region are stunning. Between the years 2003 and 2013, bear calls into the Greater Sudbury Police Service ranged from 134 in 2003 to137 in 2013, with the highest number of bear calls to police being 379 in 2009.
After the spring bear hunt was introduced in 2014, calls to police regarding bear encounters rose to 535 and then went through the roof to 1,775 in 2015.
The same trend occurred at the provincial Bear Wise Information Centre. According to these numbers, in 2004, Sudbury district recorded 1,043 bear nuisance calls, with peaks occurring in 2008 and 2009 at 3,573 and 3,295 respectively. It declined steadily in the following years.
After the spring bear hunt was introduced, the calls ballooned from 546 in 2013 to 1,421 in 2014 and then to 2,389 in 2015 — the greatest single rise since 2004.
Government officials will likely blame a bad berry season. But how would they know? A request for all data relating to the spring bear hunt turned up no such information. In fact, the ministry collected very little information on the first two years of a pilot project marketed to keep people safe.
While hunting advocates accept the known fact that a spring hunt will not relieve bear occurrences, they stay very quiet on the also well-documented fact that increased hunting pressure on black bears correlates to increased humanbear encounters. Premier Kathleen Wynne must know this because her staff and advisory committee have authored some of these research papers.
So is the spring bear hunt a matter of keeping people safe?
Some people will always fear black bears even though they are curious yet generally docile creatures, but politicians are quick to exploit people’s fears if it allows them to score an easy political hit.
Rather than educate residents on human practices that trigger bear encounters, the Ontario Liberals are peddling a false sense of security and refuse to take action on hunting practices that exacer- bate the problem.
Consider this. Most local hunters refuse to hunt black bears in the spring because they respect the relationship between mother and cub, and leave them alone to raise their families. A spring hunt is considered unethical because it always results in young cubs being abandoned and left to starve in the woods.
Ontario’s spring bear hunt is now open to American trophy hunters due to the lack of resident hunter participation. So now Ontario has delivered its black bear population to the sport’s least ethical hunters. Namely, those who consider it acceptable to bait bears as they emerge from hibernation, including nursing females.
The Liberals could have banned bear baiting but it remains legal in Ontario and legal to bait within 500 metres of a dwelling, luring bears close to people’s homes.
And contrary to popular belief, it remains legal to kill nursing black bears in Ontario. It is only illegal to kill female bears accompanied by their cubs, but in the early days of spring, cubs are too young to be by their mother’s side making them acceptable political collateral damage.
(All statistical information was retrieved through the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, both from the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.)