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Reports and Scientific Papers
Wayne McCrory: This proposed Bear-People Conflict Prevention Plan (or “bear plan”) was designed and completed for the
Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) as part of their ongoing program to maximize public safety
with respect to black bears (Ursus americanus) as well as to maintain the natural behaviour of local bears
in as wild and non-habituated a state as possible. Human conflict prevention for grizzly bears (Ursus
arctos) is also addressed in this plan even though the species has been virtually extirpated in the region.
Susan A. Mansfield and Lynn L. Rogers: People are increasingly moving into black bear (Ursus americanus) habitat, seeing more bears, and often feeding them intentionally or unintentionally. There are many untested beliefs about the effects this supplemental feeding has on bear behavior, food preferences, natural foraging activities, relations with humans, and longevity. This study compares bears receiving supplemental food with those in a nearby study area where bears were not supplementally fed (Rogers 1987;Rogers, unpublished data).
M.D. Wood and L.M. Ciarniello, Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program – Peace Region (FWCP-P Report No. 344): To assess the likelihood that different sex and age classes of bears that use landfills would display problem behaviour following landfill closure, we conducted the McLeod Lake Landfill Grizzly Bear Behaviour Project over a 3-year period: 2000 (pre-landfill closure), 2001 and 2002 (post-landfill closure). Our study was designed to identify attributes or behaviours that may be used to predict which bears are more likely to seek out alternate human-food sources after a landfill closes, thus becoming problem bears and posing a threat to humans. If we are able to predict whether certain classes of bears are more likely to become problems than others, this knowledge could be applied during subsequent landfill closures where those bears with an
increased likelihood of posing a threat to human safety would be destroyed, while the remaining
bears would be allowed to live.
Barbara Bertch and Mike Gibeau: This report provides a 20 year summary of known black bear mortalities in Banff, Jasper, Kootenay, Yoho, Waterton Lakes, Mt. Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks (1990-2009).
Hebblewhite et al., Biological Conservation 112-3: Black bear survival and demography were studied in Banff National Park (BNP) from 1994 to 2000 to test the efficacy of National Park protection. 25 radio-collared bears were monitored an average of 1.9 years each for a total of 51.8 bear-years. Eighty-two percent of all mortality (n=11) was human-caused, composed of highway mortality (36%), management mortality (27%) and management relocation (18%). Survival was influenced by season and management status. Once bears became a management problem, survival (0.66) was lower than several hunted populations. Responsible management agencies should reduce adult female highway mortality and the likelihood of becoming a management problem, while continuing monitoring to refine demographic analyses to adequately protect this population.
Ocean Alaska Science and Learning Center : The Question: Is increasing human activity affecting the behavior of black bears
along the Park’s coastline?
Black bears (Ursus americanus) are abundant along the Kenai Fjords National Park
coastline. In the springtime, when much of the land is still buried under snow,
black bears leave their winter dens and rely heavily on the intertidal zone and
nearshore meadows, where vegetation emerges the earliest, for food. The same
beaches and meadows are becoming increasingly popular with kayak campers and
other Park visitors. How critical are these meadows to the bears? Does human
presence affect the bears’ use of these areas?
Lynn Rogers: Although open garbage pits are being phased out, hundreds remain, especially in black bear habitat. This paper reviews and summarizes information on the use of dumps by black bears and on bear-human interactions in northeastern Minnesota. The data were collected during ecological studies of black bears during 1969-1986.
Stephen Herrero, Tom Smith, Terry D. DeBruyn, Kerry Gunther, and Colleen A. Matt, Wildlife Society Bulletin 2005, 33(1):362–373: Recently, brown bear (Ursus arctos) viewing has increased in coastal Alaska and British Columbia, as well as in interior areas such as Yellowstone National Park. Viewing is most often being done under conditions that offer acceptable safety to both people and bears. We analyze and comment on the underlying processes that lead brown bears to tolerate people at close range. Although habituation is an important process influencing the distance at which bears tolerate people, other variables also modify levels of bear-to-human tolerance. Because bears may react internally with energetic costs before showing an overt reaction to humans, we propose a new term, the Overt Reaction Distance, to emphasize that what we observe is the external reaction of a bear. In this paper we conceptually analyze bear viewing in terms of benefits and risks to people and bears. We conclude that managers and policy-makers must develop site-specific plans that identify the extent to which bear-to-human habituation and tolerance will be permitted. The proposed management needs scientific underpinning. It is our belief that bear viewing, where appropriate, may promote conservation of bear populations, habitats, and ecosystems as it instills respect and concern in those who participate.
Terry D. DeBruyn, Tom S. Smith, Kelly Proffitt, Steve Partridge, and Thomas D. Drummer - Wildlife Society Bulletin 2004, 32(4):1132–1140: The increasing popularity of brown bear (Ursus arctos) viewing at Brooks River in Katmai National Park, Alaska has resulted in overcrowded facilities, increasing bear-human conflicts, displacement of bears from important habitats, and degradation of cultural resources. To partially address these issues, the National Park Service (NPS) constructed a 300-m-long elevated boardwalk with interconnected viewing platforms in August 2000. To determine what effects the new structures might have on individual bears, we observed bear movements and behaviors before and after construction.
Scott Nielsen et al., Biological Conservation 141: This paper evaluates the long-term (100-year) persistence of a grizzly bear population in Alberta, Canada using forest simulations and habitat modelling. Even with harvesting the same volume of timber, natural disturbance-based forestry resulted in a larger human footprint than traditional two-pass forestry with road densities reaching 1.39 km/km2 or more than three times baseline conditions and suggested maximum levels of security for grizzly bears. Natural disturbance-based forestry is an ill-suited management tool for sustaining declining populations of grizzly bears. A management model that explicitly considers road access is more likely to improve grizzly bear population persistence than changing the size of clear-cuts.
Lynn L. Rogers, David W. Kuehn, Albert W. Erickson, Elsworth M. Harger et al - Third International Conference on Bear Research and Management: Many black bears, Ursus americanus, in northern Michigan habitually supplement their natural summer diets by feeding in garbage dumps, campgrounds or residential areas. In the past, many of these bears were destroyed as nuisances. To minimize such waste, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources began capturing nuisance bears and releasing them away from areas of human habitation. In conjunction with this program, we estimated the age and recorded the weight, sex and breeding condition of each captured bear in an attempt to learn the sex ratio, age structure, growth rate and fecundity of wild black bears that supplement their diets with garbage. This paper reports and discusses our findings.
John Beecham, Sylvia Dolson, Emre Can and Victor Watkins - 17th International Conference on Bear Research and Management October 2-6, 2006 Karuziawa, Japan: To develop a proactive program for reducing human-bear conflicts in communities that emphasizes educating the public about bear ecology, eliminating food attractants for bears, providing enforcement options and non-lethal methods for resolving conflicts.
Meredith L. Gore: Six noteworthy North American black bear-related human education interventions were reviewed: Adirondacks, New York; State of New Jersey; Lake Tahoe, CA/NV; State of Florida; Whistler, British Columbia, Canada; and West Yellowstone, MT. All education interventions were designed to reduce human-bear conflict. Cases were compared according to essential intervention-related criteria such as: problem; education intervention; alternative actions considered; stakeholders involved; target audience of education program; criteria to evaluate success; and species targeted by the intervention. Inductive findings from this review include: (1) human-black bear conflict is not a regional, small-scale phenomenon; (2) comprehensive, extensive, and well-known black bear education interventions are present in communities/regions where human-bear conflict has reached a "crisis" level; (3) education interventions are implemented and maintained by different stakeholders and interventionists; stakeholders' motivations are diverse as well; (4) overall, evaluation of education interventions is lacking; and (5) most education interventions in these contexts appear to be implemented as a means to address human-bear conflict via direct human behavior modification, not direct bear behavior modification.
Edward A. Tavss, PhD: This report provides evidence that non-violent aversion techniques do more to reduce human-bear conflicts than does hunting.
Robert B. Cialdini: While the report is a difficult read with all of its scientific jargon - the take home message is this: if your messaging is suggesting that a large portion of the population is doing something, then others are more likely to do it as well, whether it is the right thing or the wrong thing. If we apply this theory to bear smart education, then our messaging should make it clear that it is socially unacceptable to be bear-"un"aware; that the majority of people are bear smart and that you want to be part of the majority. For example, "5 % of people are responsible for 95% of conflicts with bears. Be part of the bear "smart" community. Learn more at www.bearsmart.com."
Francine Madden: This article summarizes recommendations from the 5th IUCN World Parks Congress workshop held in Durban, South Africa in September of 2004, and introduces the other articles in this special issue of Human Dimensions of Wildlife.
Raincoast Conservation Society, The Centre for Integral Economics: This report brings together a wide range of information from a variety of sources in order to present a picture of a particular component of BC's economy. The information and analysis relate to revenue figures for those industries relying on the presence of grizzly bears: grizzly hunting (as a component of guide outfitting) and grizzly viewing (as a component of ecotourism). The key findings are summarized below. BC currently receives considerably greater economic benefits-in terms of revenue-from viewing grizzly bears than from hunting them. For ecotourism operations involving grizzly viewing, total revenues directly attributable to the presence of grizzlies are approximately $6.1 million annually. Guide outfitting operations with a grizzly hunt component, in comparison, generate about $3.3 million dollars from grizzly hunting activities. Projecting current revenues into the future 20 years and calculating the present value of these revenue streams, we determine that the grizzly viewing industry is valued at over $75 million and grizzly hunting at just over $40 million.
Christopher Servheen and Rebecca Shoemaker - 2008 Yellowstone Science 1(2): Twenty-six years of cooperative, careful management and monitoring by state, federal, tribal, county, and non-governmental partners led to the recovery of the Yellowstone grizzly bear population and its removal from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in April 2007. Robust population growth, cooperative management of mortality and habitat, widespread public support for grizzly bear recovery, and the development of a comprehensive Conservation Strategy brought the Yellowstone grizzly bear population to the point where delisting was appropriate. State wildlife agencies, national parks, national forests, and the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team led by the U.S. Geological Survey worked together to bring the Yellowstone grizzly bear population back from the brink of extinction. It is heartening to know these agencies will continue to manage and monitor the bear and its habitat in perpetuity.
Al LeCount: An interesting survey of bear visits to urban homes; even though it was conducted in 1995, the results would still hold true today. Result highlights: If garbage was stored indoors prior to pick-up, the homeowner only had a 2% chance of being visited by a bear as opposed to a 68% chance if the homeowner left the garbage outside. Presence of wildlife feed; vegetable garden; fruit trees; water for wildlife; compost; motion sensor light, barbecue; proximity to neighbouring houses; dogs; and pet food all played a minor role in whether or not the home would be visited by a bear [keep in mind however that this is the case in this area where significant garbage is available to bears, it is the editor's opinion that once those sources are significantly reduced, the other factors will play a greater role]. A fence around the garbage higher than 6 feet, however, did deter bears to some extent. Proximity to a travel corridor did increase visitation by 3%. While over half of respondents had a bear visit their home, only 12% reported the visit to authorities. Many people (57%) wanted the bear to be left alone, and if action had to be taken, preferred the bear be removed and relocated. No one sampled wanted a problem bear killed.
Rachel L. Mazur, Division of Natural Resources, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks: Aversive conditioning (AC) has the potential to temporarily reduce conflicts between humans and black bears (Ursus americanus)and AC was successful in keeping bears that were not food-conditioned from becoming food-conditioned.
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