Decline in salmon stocks is blamed for bears starving to death
The unsure fate of Grizzly bear populations might not be a concern that is limited to the lower 48 states.
Grizzly bear decline alarms conservationists in Canada – The Guardian
A furious row has erupted in Canada with conservationists desperately lobbying the government to suspend the annual bear-hunting season following reports of a sudden drop in the numbers of wild bears spotted on salmon streams and key coastal areas where they would normally be feeding.
Comments
Yes, it is premature to say the B.C. coastal bears have starved to death. Although they are probably under food stress a redistribution of location is more likely.
In this claim some grizzly bear conservationists might be like some elk hunters — when their favorite species’ location changes, they conclude they are dead.
In this claim some grizzly bear conservationists might be like some elk hunters — when their favorite species’ location changes, they conclude they are dead.
Of course if all the animals are not in their usual spots they surely are dead. 🙂
It will be interesting to see. Kind of the opposite thing happened in the Okanogan in WA state- people were screaming bloody murder that cougars were overrunning the countryside. When a census was actually done, it turned out cougar numbers had nosedived from overhunting- and researchers speculated that it was the breakdown in cougar social structure that was causing the perceived rise in sightings and complaint. The big toms, which regulate the numbers of young toms, had been killed out, and the number of females wasn’t sufficient to keep the remaining toms around to settle down and maintain a home range. So you had an increase in young, transient males, who are the troublemakers in most species :>)
Of course, the locals don’t believe the science and are still screaming to WDFW for more cougar control…
Cris, when people start sighting predators like wolves, mountain lions, and bears then the populations are almost always out of control they think. I guess they are the opposite of children, meant to be heard not seen?
Could there be a parallel here with the Craigheads’ predictions about closing the dumps in Yellowstone? It turned out they had learned a lot about the dump bears but maybe not so much about the overall population – just as people tend to expect and notice bears on salmon streams but less in inland areas. Salmon provide tremendous nutrition that no doubt sustains a denser bear population, but even in regions with salmon, not all bears feed on salmon.
“Cris, when people start sighting predators like wolves, mountain lions, and bears then the populations are almost always out of control they think. I guess they are the opposite of children, meant to be heard not seen?”
Seems that way. Luckily, not always.
Where I live, we have a fairly undisturbed population of coyotes. There’s a 200-acre hay farm outside my window, and across the road from that is thousands of acres of off-limits to hunting private land and National Wildlife Refuge. There’s some hunting on DFG lands to the south, but I think the pressure on the resident coyotes is pretty light, and thee is zero trapping as it’s illegal here.
Few people in my neighborhood have livestock (I gave up on chickens and guineas years ago, more from a really wily bobcat than the coyotes) and, other than munching on the occasional cat, the coyotes cause few problems. Rabbits and ground squirrels are much more of a problem here, especially in the summer when everything is tinderbox-dry- just *try* growing a garden! When I was raining goats, I could look out my window at night and see 2 dozen bunnies in the hay…
Because of this, it’s not uncommon here to see coyotes in the daytime. I used to have one who would come through the property every day at 1:30 like clockwork. One morning, when I was walking to my car, a *very* speedy rabbit bolted down the driveway, followed by a big male coyote and one of the pups of the year. Dad kept after the bunny, but Junior put on the brakes, stopped, and just stared at me for several seconds.
Of course, in undisturbed areas, coyotes are commonly diurnal hunters anyway. So this is hardly unusual behavior.
I know there are a few people around here that would ventilate the hide of any ‘yote that crossed their sights- but, luckily, there aren’t many. So I can occasionally enjoy the sight of a family mousing in the hay meadows, and, during the right times of year, we have some pretty spectacular evening concerts.
Cris, I am jealous. 🙂
We live in an alarmist society, facts do not mean anything, start with a conclusion, lie, use junk science or just plain BS to justify it. I am a huge conservationist, however I am old school. Obtain the real facts before you start running your mouth and changing things. Sadly that is why we have so many problems we do not manage our wilderness we react to alarmists, and destroy more than we save because of it.