Grizzly bear population has doubled, study reveals

1,100 animals estimated in region straddling Alberta, B.C., Montana

CALGARY As the province prepares to release its updated grizzly bear recovery strategy, a new survey of grizzlies in west-central Alberta shows the population has more than doubled in a decade.

The Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan 2008-2013 was implemented after studies found there were fewer than 700 grizzlies left in Alberta, leading the province to declare the species threatened.

Now a survey by FRI Research, formerly the Foothills Research Institute, shows the strategy is working — at least in the area east of Banff and Jasper national parks.

“We found that the population has grown rather dramatically,” said Gordon Stenhouse, research scientist and program leader at the institute’s grizzly bear program. “Normally, bear populations in North America ... see a typical rate of growth, without hunting, in the order of two or three per cent (annually).

“We have determined that we have a growth rate of seven per cent, which is quite remarkable.”

According to the survey conducted last year, there were 74 grizzly bears in Bear Management Area No. 3 — an area that extends from the boundaries of Banff and Jasper national parks east to Drayton Valley and Rocky Mountain House, and between Highways 16 and 11.

That’s up from 36 bears in 2004, when the last survey was completed.

Researchers also studied the number of grizzly bears in Jasper National Park south of Highway 16 as part of the survey. It complements a population estimate for the northern part of the park that was completed in 2008.

With an estimate of 54 bears in the southern half, it’s believed there’s 113 grizzly bears in the entire park.

The numbers, which were determined by researchers collecting hair samples and sending them in for DNA analysis, are similar to those being recorded in southern Alberta — where it appears the population has also more than doubled.

Statistics suggest there are about 1,100 bears in the Crown of the Continent, which includes southwestern Alberta, B.C.’s Flathead and northern Montana.

The province, in partnership with several other organizations, has also been trying to determine the resident population of grizzly bears in southern Alberta by analyzing hair samples.

“All signs point to it increasing,” Andrea Morehouse, co-ordinator for the grizzly bear monitoring project in southern Alberta, said during a recent talk in Canmore.

In the past three years, when hair samples were taken from private as well as public lands, she said their results showed an annual average of about 118 grizzly bears — up from the 51 recorded in an earlier survey in the area.

Morehouse said more than half of those bears have previously been identified in Montana and British Columbia, but noted they are passing through the area.

The latest population estimates come as the province is about to release its updated grizzly bear recovery strategy, which is still expected sometime this fall.

Alberta’s initial strategy led to the suspension of the grizzly bear hunt in 2006 and resulted in a recovery strategy aimed at reducing conflicts between bears and people.

It’s being updated to better reflect the current situation for grizzly bears in the province as the population appears to be increasing in some areas and conflicts are taking place with landowners out on the prairies.

The province has declined to give too many details of the revised recovery strategy, but it isn’t expected to be much different than the existing one, which expired in December 2013 but has been extended during the revision period.

Officials have suggested they will better define the areas where they are specifically trying to recover grizzly bears, which could lead to changes in the way they are handled in some parts of Alberta.

We have determined that we have a growth rate of seven per cent, which is quite remarkable.

GORDON STENHOUSE