Grizzly population threatened: report

Loss of habitat, decline in food sources and an annual, government-sanctioned trophy hunt is threatening the long-term survival of B.C.’s grizzly bear population, a report says.

The document, commissioned by the Grizzly Bear Foundation, has put forward 19 recommendations aimed at protecting grizzlies in B.C. The proposals range from improving laws around controlling bear attractants to looking at expanding bearwatching tourism. B.C. is home to the second-largest population of grizzly bears, after Alaska. Their historic range has shrunk to northern and western mainland Canada and Alaska after previously spanning from northern Mexico to the Arctic.