People have been mauled and killed by grizzly bears in the Bow Valley.

It’s something most of us don’t have to think about. But for wildlife managers in parks with bears, the worst-case-scenario is never far from mind.

Balancing the potential of that horror happening again with the behaviour of a habituated bear like 148 can feel like “playing Russian roulette,” Jay Honeyman, human-wildlife conflict biologist with Alberta Environment and Parks, says.

Do we wait until human-wildlife interactions become deadly before we intervene? Or is it reasonable to remove a peaceful bear from their habitat when the faintest warning bells begin to sound?

Honeyman said the riddle of what to do about Bear 148 wasn’t a simple one to solve.

“We haven’t found the silver bullet to figure out how to make it work with that level of habituated bear because inevitably our, our public safety radar goes off at some point and …  we can’t continue to play this game.”

But in places like Banff National Park it can be difficult for a bear to avoid habituation.

Take the example of Banff’s notorious “bear jams.”

The Bow Valley Parkway is a small, scenic road that runs parallel to the main highway between Banff and Lake Louise. Forested on both sides, the heavily trafficked parkway brings you past campgrounds and trailheads.

The beautiful drive is popular in the spring and summer — especially for tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of a wild animal.

Clearings beside the road make for popular bear grazing spots. But not all road-side stops are the same for bears.

In Banff, bears are welcome to their roadside grazing, whereas outside the park’s boundaries, bears are actively discouraged from grazing by the road with the help of rubber bullets, paintballs, beanbags and noisemakers.

Wildlife biologist Sarah Elmeligi says it’s a challenge for bears when we send them such mixed messages.

“It presents this very complex challenge to managers because on the one hand facilitating roadside bear viewing in Banff National Park is great,” she says. “It really shows people that bears are not inherently violent. It allows the bear to access really important roadside habitat, especially in the spring.”

“But on the flip side … when they leave the national parks and they engage in that same behaviour [it] can get them into pretty significant trouble.”

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Featured in this episode:

Cameron Westhead, former MLA for Banff-Cochrane

Brett Boukall, Alberta senior wildlife biologist

Bill Hunt, Banff National Park resource conservation manager

Sarah Elmeligi PhD, biologist and author of the forthcoming book “What Bears Teach Us”

Jay Honeyman, human-wildlife conflict biologist with Alberta Environment and Parks

John Borrowman, mayor of Canmore

 

Undercurrent soundtrack sponsored in part by Approach Media.