Grizzly bear mortalities mount

Despite their protected status, grizzly bears are still being hunted

By Environmental News Network staff

Following the muddy tracks of a black bear at dusk, two licensed hunters spotted a dark-colored bear around the bend of a river. Assuming it was the same animal, they shot and killed the bear with one bullet.

Had they looked more closely, the hunters would have been spared a hefty fine as well as the wrath of the environmental community for killing a threatened grizzly bear.

While many states have an open black-bear hunting season, it is illegal to kill or injure grizzly bears in the lower 48 states due to their protected status.

“The conditions that the hunters had to contend with - late day, low light, rain and a wet bear - were contributing factors in the bear being misidentified,” said Wyoming Game and Fish warden Tim Fagan. But this was not an isolated incident.

Grizzly bears have been dropping like flies lately, and conservation groups are raising serious concerns about the bear's protected status.

There have been more grizzly bear mortalities this year in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem than any other year since the bears were listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1975.

Most have resulted from conflict with humans, and the majority of those conflicts have involved hunters.

Between 200 and 600 grizzly bears are estimated to live in the 5.9-million-acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which was designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a recovery zone for grizzlies in 1975.

Of the 33 known and probable grizzly mortalities in the area that have been reported by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, at least 23 were human-caused. A body count of 16 bears was tied to hunters.

"The primary cause of grizzly mortality in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is hunters, as it has been for the past three or four years," said Louisa Willcox, director of the Sierra Club's Grizzly Bear Ecosystems Project. "You have to go back to 1972, two years after the closure of the dumps in Yellowstone National Park, to get a count as high as that. "

Some scientists believe that the sound of gunfire acts as a dinner bell for hungry grizzly bears, Willcox said. Often hunters will encounter a bear when it discovers the dead carcass of an elk or deer.

Pepper spray is recommended as a means of self-defense against bears

The majority of bear killings are attributed to self-defense by hunters.

"We are not challenging self-defense claims in these hunting situations at all," Willcox said. "Nevertheless, people often do not know about the alternatives to shooting grizzlies, and sometimes their lack of understanding for bear behavior intensifies what is actually a threat."

To reduce the grizzly death toll, conservation groups advocate that hunters who travel in grizzly bear country be required to carry and know how to use pepper spray - a non-lethal means of deterring grizzly attacks.

Conservation groups also asked the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to require hunters to complete a short version of the "Living in Bear Country" workshops to ensure they know how to hunt safely in grizzly habitat. The courses include information about pepper-spray use, clean camps and grizzly bear behavior.

"Almost all of the people who use pepper spray properly during grizzly bear conflicts walk away whole," Willcox notes. "We feel it is not too much to ask hunters to go through a training session. It’s a human safety issue as well as a bear safety issue."

"The situation has really gotten people's attention this year," she added. "Many sportsmen feel a sense of urgency to educate hunters so that this doesn't happen again."

However, there remains a large population of hunters who refuse to use the spray.

"We're appalled at the high number of hunters, outfitters and professional guides that still insist on not carrying or using pepper spray during encounters with grizzlies," said Lloyd Dorsey of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation. "Most summertime recreationists have displayed appropriate behavior in grizzly country by carrying and using pepper spray, but it's in the fall, after big game hunting starts, that most bears die. The solution is carrying pepper spray - and all (people) should never be without it when hunting in grizzly country."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed a 2005 deadline for removing Endangered Species Act protection for the grizzly bear. High, human-caused mortality along with threats to natural foods, habitat loss from development and continued separation of the Yellowstone grizzly from other grizzly populations are the strongest arguments conservation groups use in lobbying for a continuation of the grizzlies' protected status.

"It's unfortunate that we have to start the new millennium on such a sour note, but there are unfortunately still many people out there who haven't learned how to take the proper precautions in grizzly country," Willcox said. "If this is what we can expect when the bear is fully protected under the law, what will happen when the population is delisted?"

Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
  • Grizzly bears
  • Endangered Species Act
Sierra Club's Grizzly Bear Ecosystems Project

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