Female grizzly bear 148 has been crisscrossing back and forth between drainages in Alberta and B.C., travelling approximately 450 kilometres in her new home in a remote area of northwestern Alberta.
Female grizzly bear 148 has been crisscrossing back and forth between drainages in Alberta and B.C., travelling approximately 450 kilometres in her new home in a remote area of northwestern Alberta.
A new GPS collar tracking 148's movements shows she's been in the same valley in the Willmore Wilderness Area for the past two weeks, approximately 10 kms from her release site.
Since the well-known grizzly was relocated out of Canmore on July 28 following several encounters with people in an heavily used area, officials say she's travelled 450 kms end to end, but within an area of about 150 square kms.
“She's wandered a bit between Alberta and B.C., but stayed kind of in the general area where we released her. She has been in Alberta, not moving too extensively, for the past 10 days or so,” said Paul Frame, the province's carnivore specialist.
“Our guys up in that area suggest the drainage she's in is full of huckleberry and they figure she's just foraging. To me, it's suggesting that perhaps she's going to find her way in that new landscape and not try to make a great big, long distance travel back.”
Grizzly bears are a threatened species in Alberta and six-and-a-half-year-old 148 was considered an important part of the local population of about 60 grizzly bears – a population with one of the slowest reproducing rates.
While moving grizzlies outside their home range can improve human safety here and now, long-term research shows relocated bears generally die prematurely. Studies show most bears inevitably return or get into trouble elsewhere due to hunger or stress.
The research indicates relocated bears tend to travel more, expending more calories, and entering hibernation without appropriate fat reserves – and they don't just magically know where to find food in a new area.
Lori Homstol, an independent human-wildlife conflict specialist who's been working with bears in Alberta, B.C., Montana and Yukon for 22 years, said it's been her experience that relocated bears usually either head home, or get into trouble in another community where they are shot.
“Translocation gives bears a chance, but the odds are still against them,” she said.
Homstol said the success rate of relocation probably depends on human densities, food availability and the age of the bear, noting older bears are probably more likely to return to their original home range.
“If 148 has good local food availability such as huckleberry, I don't think she'd try to come home this fall,” said Homstol, noting, however, there have been cases where bears have travelled incredibly long distances.
A male grizzly bear known as 114 was relocated out of Kananaskis Country in 2007 to the remote Chinchaga region in Alberta's northwest. He was recaptured in Kananaskis in 2010 and 2015, but then his collar failed and his fate is unknown.
“Bears can do amazing things, but boy, I hope 148 decides not to do a long distance travel back,” said Frame.
The decision to relocate bear 148 was a controversial one.
Bear 148 spent 90 per cent of her time in Banff National Park, but the last couple of summers headed to Canmore to feast on buffalo berries, primarily on the south side of the valley in an area heavily used by hikers, bikers, joggers and people walking dogs.
There, she had daily encounters with people this year, including the last one when she came within three feet of a male jogger on the powerline trail near the Peaks of Grassi neighbourhod.
The bear bluff charged the jogger from a very short distance. Her history shows she lets people know when they get too close, but always has stopped short of a person and never harmed anyone.
To better manage 148 and the risk of someone being hurt, local staff with three provincial government agencies made a consensus decision on July 27 to close a large chunk of land on the south side of the valley near Quarry Lake and the power line.
However, that decision by local staff from both Operations and Parks divisions of Alberta Environment and Parks, and Fish and Wildlife, was reversed. An order came down from higher-ranking officials beyond the regional level to relocate bear 148.
Following the last-minute order, bear 148 was relocated about 500 kms away to an area near Kakwa Wildland Provincial Park, about 150 kms east of Grande Cache and about 150 kms north of Jasper National Park.
Frame said bear 148 was relocated to an area with good quality bear habitat.
“It's good bear habitat and it's remote, and some place where hopefully it will keep humans from surprising her,” he said.
“I would be willing to bet money she hasn't seen a human,” he added, noting the closest she came to a community was within 70 kilometres of McBride, B.C.
Bear 148 has been travelling into B.C., and although the B.C. government has banned the grizzly bear trophy hunt, it doesn't come into effect until after this year's season. Hunting bears for meat will still be allowed, except in the Great Bear Rainforest.
Because 148 is a collared bear, Frame said Alberta wildlife officials have been in touch with their counterparts in neighbouring B.C., who indicated most hunters, as a general rule, don't typically kill collared grizzlies.
“She's also not a really big bear so we don't think she would be a target for the sport hunt,” said Frame. “It's possible, but I wouldn't think so.”
Parks Canada officials declined an interview request on 148, but sent an emailed statement that noted the province has taken over monitoring and management efforts of 148.
“If circumstances changed – if bear 148 moved close to a national park, for instance – Parks Canada would work closely with the Province of Alberta to prevent any potential wildlife conflict,” wrote spokesperson Christie Thomson in an email.
Since grizzly bears were listed as a threatened species in 2010, Alberta has relocated 27 grizzlies and shot and killed one between Kananaskis Country and Cochrane.
