A recent string of grizzly bear encounters across the province, including last week’s attack on a group of schoolchildren near Bella Coola, has renewed debate over the province’s ban on grizzly hunting.
According to the B.C. Wildlife Association, an attack on a man west of Creston in July, has created particular stress and concern for residents.
Executive director Jesse Zeman said Creston has become one of the communities most affected by what he described as a dramatic behavioural shift among grizzly bears.
He said local members are reporting bolder behaviour and a growing reluctance to venture outdoors without protection.
“We’re hearing it not just from our members in that community, but also from members of the public who live there too, who are seeing multiple bears and having encounters,” said Zeman.
“People are telling us they don’t leave their house without their dogs or with bear spray or with a firearm. They really feel like 20, 30 years ago, they coexisted really well with bears and that is changing.”
Zeman said several factors and policy changes have converged in Creston to create a “generations-deep” problem.
One major change, he said, was a shift in livestock carcass management policy that required producers to keep deadstock on their property rather than disposing of it elsewhere.
Over time, Zeman said this created a strong attractant.
“To make a very long story short, there’s generations of bears who have been living down in the valley as opposed to up in the mountains and now people are having conflict regularly with bears,” he said.
“It sure sounds like it’s an attractant management issue, but it’s having quite an effect on people living in Creston.”
The concern comes as B.C. sees a rise in high-profile grizzly incidents, including in Bella Coola, where 11 children and a teacher were injured last week after a grizzly charged at them.
Closer to home, a Creston man was left with life-threatening injuries after being attacked by a grizzly while riding an e-bike on a trail west of Creston in July.
Earlier in the fall, an elk hunter from Cranbrook died from his injuries after fighting off a grizzly near Fort Steele, and a hiker near Cochrane, Alberta, was mauled just weeks before.
Zeman said B.C. Conservation Officer Service data illustrates the growing trend.
In the decade before the hunting ban, calls to the service about grizzly conflicts typically ranged from 300 to 500 a year.
But since the ban was imposed in 2017, Zeman said those calls have doubled to nearly 1,000.
Hunting pressure on bear behaviour
A key point pressed by the B.C. Wildlife Federation is that the rise in conflicts could be stemming from behavioural changes since the hunt ended.
Zeman said this isn’t about grizzly populations getting larger, but about how the removal of hunting pressure has altered how bears move across the landscape and how wary they are of humans.
“Even when we had the hunt, there were areas where there were a lot of hunters, hunting grizzly bears but those bears had a lot of respect for people and were only seen typically in the morning and at night,” said Zeman.
“Now that there is no hunting in the areas, the pressure has changed and bears have adjusted their behaviour.”
He added that bear behaviour is often learned. Cubs raised by conflict-prone or bold sows are likely to inherit or be taught those tendencies.
Without hunting as a selection force, Zeman said those behaviours can become established over generations.
“If the sow gets into problems or is a bold bear and has cubs and the cubs survive, those characteristics are passed on to the cubs. Over time in the absence of hunting or selection, what we would expect is to end up with more bears exhibiting these behaviours.”
Gap in provincial management
Beyond the provincial hunting debate, Zeman said the BCWF has noted that the province’s capacity to manage grizzlies has declined since 2017.
Before the ban, he said the province had a dedicated team to work on grizzly research, inventory, education and management.
But he said that’s no longer the case.
“One of the things that has happened post-hunt is the province, in effect, has really walked away from grizzly bear research, inventory and management compared to what they were doing and they’ve lost a ton of expertise over that time, which has not been replaced, but the threats to grizzly bears continue.”
He argued the result is that communities like Creston are left dealing with the consequences without appropriate provincial support for attractant management, education or population monitoring.
The BCWF has been urging the province to revisit the ban and reinvest in grizzly management for several years.
The association said Alberta has publicly stated “everything is on the table” in reference to lifting its own ban as conflicts rise. It also noted that Japan has faced a recent spike in fatal bear attacks and has cited a lack of hunting pressure as a contributor to bear boldness.
British Columbia, however, has not indicated any imminent policy shift.
Zeman said he fears the longer the issue continues without intervention, public sentiment toward grizzly bears could become more sour.
“Those people, you know, either don’t want to go outside or don’t want to see grizzly bears on the landscape. And so that’s really bad for wildlife. We’re concerned that the social value for grizzly bears in this case is declining in parts of B.C.” he said.
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