Alberta Environment and Parks plans to review its no-rehabilitation rule for black bears after three orphaned cubs dumped in Banff National Park had to be sent to a rehabilitation facility outside the province.
Alberta Environment and Parks plans to review its no-rehabilitation rule for black bears after three orphaned cubs dumped in Banff National Park had to be sent to a rehabilitation facility outside the province.
A spokesperson for Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips said the department would work with various stakeholders, including the Alberta Wildlife Rehabilitation Association, to explore options for policy direction in the future.
Brent Wittmeier, the minister's press secretary, said rehab and reintroduction of wildlife back into the wild is allowed in some cases, but the black bear policy was based on the understanding rehabilitation of black bears has little to no chance of success once they have been habituated to human contact.
“More recent scientific evidence suggests rehabilitation and reintroduction of bears into the wild may be possible in some cases,” wrote Wittmeier in an emailed statement.
“We will continue to review our policies on a periodic basis, taking into consideration the most current scientific data and information gathered from other jurisdictions.”
Three abandoned female black bear cubs were discovered just before midnight on April 1 locked in a washroom at a viewpoint overlooking Vermilion Lakes just west of Banff.
There was no sign of the mother bear at the time they were found and, despite an extensive three-day search and checking of wildlife cameras, wildlife staff in Banff could not find the mother.
Parks Canada staff cared for the tiny female cubs for about two weeks while they looked for a facility with the expertise and space to raise them for release back into the wild.
The agency settled on Ontario's Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, but had to fly the cubs out of Kelowna, B.C. because they could not get a permit in Alberta to fly them out of Calgary.
The case raised debate about the Alberta government's no-rehabilitation rule for black bears.
Howard Smith, managing director of the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, located about 240 kilometres north of Toronto, raised concerns about Alberta's existing policy on black bears.
“It's crazy because of their no-rehab rule,” he said, noting the bears first had to be driven 480 km to Kelowna, where they were flown by WestJet to Toronto because of what he refers to as Alberta's archaic rules.
“I hope this will get some discussion to allow rehabilitation of bears there. A lot of places do allow this, and we just don't want to see a bear, through no fault of its own, euthanized.”
The no-rehab rule was put in place in 2010 because the province believed there were enough black bears here and wasn't convinced returning rehabilitated bears to the wild would be successful.
