The total breeding population of grizzlies in Alberta is less than half of what is needed for the species to maintain a genetically healthy population.

Those are the final results of a scientific study into the bear’s total population in the province and as a result the provincial government is expected to make a decision on its status this spring.

In 2002 the endangered species committee recommended the grizzly bear be listed as threatened. Since then, the province has tasked biologist Gordon Stenhouse of the Foothills Research Institute with establishing a baseline population for the bears.

During a presentation last Friday (Feb. 5), Stenhouse discussed the final results of his research.

After five years of counting individual bears through DNA, a total population of 583 bears are thought to inhabit the province, although the research is but a snapshot into a population at one given time.

Regardless, Stenhouse said 40 per cent of that population is known to be sub-adult, therefore his research has found Alberta has a breeding population of 363 grizzly bears.

“Certainly that is fewer bears than we expected,” Stenhouse said.

Population size is a key factor in the species’ survival. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, at least 1,000 mature animals are needed in order to keep a population of animals genetically healthy.

With the final population numbers and habitat mapping report prepared by Stenhouse submitted to the provincial endangered species conservation committee last year, an independent scientist was brought in to prepare a status report on the species.

Sustainable Resource Development spokesperson Darcy Whiteside said the status report is in a draft version and after its review the committee will make a recommendation to newly named minister Mel Knight.

Stenhouse said the status report has gone out for national and international independent peer review and has come back to the endangered species committee.

Stenhouse said Alberta has only a chunk of grizzly habitat left when compared to the area the species used to occupy. The most vulnerable of those bears in Alberta are at the edge of that chunk.

“Species at the edge of the range are the most vulnerable and that is what we have (in Alberta),” he said.

One thing that became clear is that the habitat areas were not static, but changing constantly due to a variety of pressures.

“We caught bears to understand what habitat they are using and how they are responding to human caused change in the landscape,” Stenhouse said.

In 2002 the endangered species conservation committee recommended grizzly bears in Alberta be listed as threatened.

While the government did not change the status, it did start to develop a recovery plan. They soon realized better data was needed. That’s when Stenhouse began the $2.4 million state-of-the-art census on bear numbers.

“Before this, there were no systematic surveys of bears in the province,” he said.

While Stenhouse says he values the input of anecdotal evidence for grizzly bear populations, he stressed the importance of using scientific data on which to base policy and management decisions.

“We need to set recovery targets and that needs to be science-based,” he said. “We need to use the best science available to establish base line numbers.”

The population inventory was done based on DNA analysis where barbed wire baited with blood and fish oil was used to collect hair samples in order to identify individual bears through their genotype.

The territory of grizzlies in Alberta, said Stenhouse, is defined by genetic groupings, correspond to provincial management areas.

The genetically distinct population units were measured one-by-one beginning with the area between Highway 16 and Highway 11.

From May to June in 2004 Stenhouse and his researchers used 108 locations and came up with a population estimate at that time of 42 bears.

That number was considerably lower than what had previously been estimated by the province, which was granting hunting tags assuming a population of 157 bears in that area.

In addition to finding just 42 bears the research found there was a correlation between the best grizzly bear habitat and finding DNA samples.

Stenhouse said he has found that bears throughout the province skewed into areas on the western side of the Rockies and into higher elevations where there are fewer roads and less motorized vehicle use.

“Bears spending more time near roads have a higher risk of mortality,” he said, adding the problem is not necessarily the vehicles but poaching and “wanton killing” by those using the roads.

However the research does not include areas within Banff and Jasper National Parks, as their management is the responsibility of the federal government.
But the pressure of grizzly bear mortalities is not lost on the scientist.

Stenhouse said in terms of management, the province needs new ways to reduce mortalities. A reliance on relocation is not going to be enough, he said.

“We need to rethink how we deal with that and societal values need to play a part,” he said. “We are going to have to think long and hard about what we do to maintain wildlife into the future.

“I want to see grizzly bears as part of the landscape 200 years from now… we would all be poorer if this species was not in our province anymore.”

Stenhouse will be speaking at the Jasper Yellowhead Museum and Archive on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m.