EDMONTON - The provincial government is forbidding wildlife rehabilitation groups from taking in and treating more than 20 species of animals — including cougars, bears and moose — out of concern for human safety.
Those who rehabilitate animals say this is misguided thinking that forces them to act against their mission and puts the public in more danger.
The new rules are still a work in progress, but Alberta Sustainable Resource Development hopes to have overall standards finalized this year, said spokesman Darcy Whiteside.
A controversial bear-snaring program designed to boost the moose population in an area on the other side of Cook Inlet from Anchorage was expanded Friday to include brown bears.
The Alaska Board of Game approved the move in a 900-square-mile area of Game Management Unit 16B near Tyonek and Beluga with a 4-3 vote.
CODY, Wyo. — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will appeal a 2009 court decision next week that has kept Yellowstone-area grizzly bears protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Mark Bruscino, bear management specialist with Wyoming Game and Fish, told Park County commissioners Tuesday that Fish and Wildlife is scheduled to appeal the ruling before a panel of judges in San Francisco.
"Fish and Wildlife believes, and we believe, that the regulatory mechanisms are adequate — the laws, regulations and policies are there to protect the bear into the future if it's delisted," Bruscino said.
Council hasn't gone far enough to protect humans and animals from crossbows in Whistler's recreational areas, according to one concerned citizen.
Sylvia Dolson said the bylaw amendment passed at Tuesday's council meeting to ban bow hunting from Emerald Estates to Function Junction including municipal parks such as Lost Lake and the Whistler Interpretive Forest, isn't good enough.
"Mayor and council failed the residents of Whistler by not including some important recreation sites and trails (in the bylaw change)," said a disappointed Dolson after the meeting.
Radio-collared bears will continue to be fair game for hunters under a decision announced today by Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Landwehr.
Ely bear researcher Lynn Rogers had sought a ruling from the DNR that would make it illegal for hunters to shoot radio-collared research bears emblazoned with Day-Glo ribbons.
Rogers said he was “very disappointed, considering the very strong public opinion in favor of protection.”
Taseko’s revised Prosperity mine proposal is not being welcomed with open arms by First Nations communities.
When contacted, Tsilhqot’in National Government tribal chair and Anaham Chief Joe Alphonse said he hadn’t seen the proposal. Taseko, he said, had recently attempted to meet with First Nations but, “in the letter they provided to us there wasn’t anything substantial. The attitude hadn’t changed from previous attempts Taseko’s made in the past and we felt it didn’t warrant us to sit down and meet with them.”
Nevada wildlife commissioners defied a contingent of bear hunt opponents Friday, voting 7-1 to hold a season this year for killing 20 black bears in Northern Nevada.
The vote confirmed a Dec. 4 decision to establish the state's first regulated bear hunt. The dissenting vote came from Charles Howell of Las Vegas, who represents sportsmen on the nine-member panel. He said the 20-bear limit was "ridiculously low," considering that California hunters were permitted to take 1,900 black bears last year.
An international treaty will set the first-ever limit on the number of polar bears Natives in Northwest Alaska can harvest while also legalizing polar bear hunting in Russia for the first time in decades.
Details are still being worked out, but the Russia-U.S. commission governed by the treaty agreed last spring to let Native subsistence hunters in each country take 29 bears, for a total of 58, from the Alaska-Chukotka polar bear population.
A Navato man will serve two years in prison for bear poaching in Glenn County, authorities said.
Wayne R. Barsch, 49, was sentenced Friday in Glenn County Superior Court and will be required to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence because of prior convictions, according to Patrick Foy, a spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game.
LANSING -- State officials are considering a ban against chocolate in bear bait after scientists confirmed a cub died last fall from eating the treat near a northern Michigan bait pile.
Department of Natural Resources and Environment officials confirmed a bear cub found dead near a legal bait pile containing chocolate in the Red Oak bear management unit last year died of theobromine poisoning.
Theobromine is an alkaloid in chocolate and other substances that is toxic to some animals, such as dogs and bears.
Buffalo, NY (WBEN) -- Effective immediately, feeding black bears is prohibited in New York State.
The State Department of Environmetal Conservation announced the ban on feeding black bears Friday afternoon. There has been a ban for many years in certain areas, but it's now been expanded to include the entire state.
The ban applies to both intentional and incidental bear-feeding. The DEC says says residents can avoid unintentionally providing a meal to black bears by - among other things - cleaning up birdseed or pet food given outside, tightly sealing garbage cans and keeping them indoors whenever possible, and not putting meat scraps on compost piles.
MEDFORD (AP) -- State wildlife managers have avoided a lawsuit by temporarily repealing a rule requiring a review every five years to revise and update a plan for black bears.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife took the action last week on a plan that had not been reviewed since 1998, The Mail Tribune reported.
The delay had led to the threat of a lawsuit from the conservation group Big Wildlife.
Nevada Voters Greatly Prefer Non-Lethal Methods of Managing Black Bears
A statewide survey conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. has revealed that Nevada voters strongly oppose hunting black bears with dogs and hunting bears in the spring when mother bears are nursing dependent cubs - both of which have been proposed as components of Nevada's first black bear trophy hunt.
Voters strongly agree, by 74 to 20 percent, that the state should prioritize non-lethal methods of solving conflicts between people and bears. The survey results were consistent in every geographic region of the state and in every political demographic, with all regions and all political affiliations in favor of non-lethal solutions.
DENVER -- Hibernating bears would be off-limits to Colorado hunters under a new rule state wildlife officials are considering following a debate over whether a 703-pound black bear was sleeping when it was killed in a cave late last year.
The enormous black bear shot in northwestern Colorado set what may be a state record. But it sparked public outrage after the hunter told a newspaper that he tracked the male bear to a cave and shot it after five hours waiting for the animal to emerge.
State wildlife managers plan to revamp their black bear management plan almost 13 years later than they were required to and under the threat of a lawsuit from an Applegate Valley-based group that wants sport-hunting suspended until the plan is done.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists expect to hold public meetings and add new research from the department and outside entities while crafting a plan that Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission rules consider past-due since 1998.
The group Big Wildlife in mid-November filed notice that it intends to sue the agency for failing to update the plan, just weeks after ODFW Wildlife Division Administrator Ron Anglin said his agency began discussing its revision.
SANDPOINT, Idaho — State wildlife officials are urging Bonner County commissioners to pass an ordinance banning the feeding of bears and other wildlife due to safety concerns.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game said the county logged 770 nuisance bear complaints from the public this year, about 740 more than any other county in the state. Bonner County has some of the best bear habitat in Idaho.
Editor's note: The following was written and released by the NJ Sierra Club.
The bear hunt may go beyond its limits with already 477 bears killed. It has been predicted that the hunters will be out in droves with tomorrow being the only weekend day of the hunt. The hunt may far exceed the goal of 700 bears and it could possibly reach up to 1000 bears. That would be more than a third of the black bear population in New Jersey. Now it is more of a recreational hunt than a management hunt.
That is not sustainable especially with a possible hunt for next year and future years will mean the bear population will end up disappearing. The black bear is a symbol that New Jersey still has wild places and should be humanely regulated, not hunted for trophies.
RENO, Nev. — Despite strong opposition from wildlife advocates, a state panel on Saturday unanimously voted to establish Nevada's first bear hunting season.
Before their 8-0 vote, state wildlife commissioners said the state's black bear population can support a hunt and hunting might reduce human-bear conflicts in the Reno-Lake Tahoe area by giving the bruins a fear of people.
COLUMBIA -- Captive bears would be rescued by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources from people who chain them and then sic their hunting dogs on them, if a bill introduced by a Columbia Democrat becomes law.
"This bill is the first step in outlawing this savage act of animal abuse," said S.C. Senator Joel Lourie in a statement.
"South Carolina should be known for its natural beauty and hospitality, not the only state where you can sic dogs on chained bears."
The Obama administration is seeking to lift Endangered Species Act protections from two of the most iconic symbols of the American West, the gray wolf and grizzly bear, in moves likely to spark fierce resistance from environmentalists.
The administration intentions emerged in an interview on Wednesday with two top-ranking officials from the Interior Department, whose agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, oversees federal safeguards for the bulk of imperiled species.
