Media Release-BC Government Confirms Grizzly Bears Missing on BC North Coast
Die-off attributed to salmon collapse and long, cold winter
For immediate release - November 3, 2009 –- The B.C. government has released its grizzly bear population survey results of the Kimsquit drainage on the BC north-coast and found nearly fifty-percent fewer bears than average, including 65% fewer cubs.
"This was not a complex issue." states Ian McAllister of the wildlife conservation group Pacific Wild. "We had an unprecedented collapse of wild salmon in 2008 which deprived the bears of their principle fall season food supply just before an unseasonably cold and long winter.
Bear viewing guides and front-line conservationists, alarmed at the lack of bears showing up on their traditional salmon feeding rivers, reported this potential die-off to the government at the beginning of September 2009. Immediately, they requested that the BC Ministry of Environment cancel the grizzly bear trophy hunt in the fall of 2009.
With this alarming evidence clearly at hand, the Province should have acted to manage our coastal bears in a responsible pre-cautionary manner. Responsible, pro-active management of the coastal bears facing a winter without enough food to survive hibernation should have been all the evidence required to cancel the trophy hunt.
Conservationists today fear that the actual toll on grizzly bears in many north coast drainages is greater than the survey results recently released by the Province.
"Reluctant to accept the theory promoted by some that the bears had merely switched to berries as a food source, we conducted our surveys during the period well after the berries had expired and for a month longer than those conducted by provincial biologists.”
Our surveys indicate between 50%-75% fewer bears in many watersheds. “Particularly alarming,” states McAllister, “is the fact that cubs of the year were completely absent from numerous drainages.”
Most of the bears that survived last winter should have been observed feeding on the higher than average runs of pink and coho salmon after the berries finished in 2009. "When bears have easy access to salmon and no other dietary option before hibernating for the winter, it becomes very clear that we have experienced a die-off of a certain percentage of the population." McAllister further stated. "The question now is how many bears were allowed to be killed for trophy while the Province sat on this data?"
The 2010 salmon forecast is expected to be extremely low putting even more bears in jeopardy. The question now is: will the Provincial government deliver an emergency recovery plan for BC's coastal bears?
Contact: Ian McAllister, Conservation Director
web: www.pacificwild.org
email: info@pacificwild.org
phone: 250-957-2480