BOW VALLEY – While the newest exhibit at the Calgary Zoo is currently putting an endangered species of bear in the limelight, it is the future of Alberta’s own threatened grizzly bear population that is less “black and white” for those who value its conservation.
At the beginning of May, the zoo unveiled its Panda Passage exhibit, featuring two adult and two young giant panda cubs on loan from the Chengdu Panda Conservation Centre in China.
The event not only celebrated the work in Szechuan Province to reintroduce giant pandas to the wild over the past three decades, but created an opportunity to discuss sustainable tourism and wildlife safety within the context of the Canadian Rockies.
For sustainable tourism author and consultant Carol Patterson, while the pandas may be black and white, the solutions to Alberta’s and the Bow Valley’s issues with mixing tourism and wildlife is not quite as simple.
“Although pandas may be black and white, the solutions to our conservation issues are not,” said Patterson during a talk at the zoo earlier this month. “I think today is a really great way to start coming up with some of the newer ideas for the next 30 years.”
Tourism is a global industry that makes up 10 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) and one in every 10 jobs is in the industry of industries, which Patterson acknowledged is fragmented and lacks a united direction.
“When I started, I went into eco-tourism, which was a niche product, but when you look at the size of tourism and the rate it is growing, it becomes apparent we all need to get involved in sustainable tourism principles, not just specialty markets,” she said.
One of the challenges for Alberta, Patterson said, is the conversation around land use policy on the landscape. She said more and more people are visiting these natural places looking for experiences and gaining access through motorized vehicle use like ATVs or quads. But she said there are important conversations that need to occur around where that should and shouldn’t be allowed.
“I think in Alberta specifically we have to do something about motorized recreational access because we are taking people into areas where they weren’t before and we are not leaving enough space for wildlife,” Patterson said. “We are going to have to accept that there may be places where people shouldn’t be, or shouldn’t be in large numbers.”
China’s efforts to support the giant panda species through the 200-hectare Chengdu Panda Base is an example of successful sustainable tourism, according to Ye Luo with the Chinese forestry bureau.
Luo said not only does the centre work to reintroduce giant pandas into the wild, it also provides shelter to red pandas, which are like a raccoon and are considered endangered, with fewer than 10,000 on Earth.
“We are very successful in some of the sustainable tourism programs and I want to mention particularly the Chengdu panda breeding base, which is very successful in conservation and tourism programs around giant panda and red panda, which are very rare and precious in China,” she said through a translator.
“Last year, we carried out programs about education around nature and we have received more than five million tourists. As high as 83 per cent of tourists are from outside our province and this has made Chengdu a very successful image in terms of international sustainable tourism.”
The Panda Passage received $10 million from the provincial government to create the enclosure for the animals at the Calgary Zoo as an investment from the Alberta Jobs Plan in 2016. The economic diversification capital funds were part of the reason why the zoo was able to bring Er Shun and Da Mao to Alberta, along with twin cubs Jia Panpan and Jia Yueyue.
Patrick Mattern, Culture and Tourism executive director of policy research and business development, said the arrival of the Chinese giant panda bears in Calgary coincides with the 2018 year of tourism between the two countries.
“Today’s event is yet another example of what we do in this the Canada-China year of tourism,” Mattern said. “We wish to build on a strong relationship with China. This event represents just one of many initiatives between our two countries that will lead to greater cooperation on sustainable tourism, but also lead to greater two-way traffic in the tourism industry.”
Zhen Ting Gao, deputy counsel general with the People’s Republic of China in Calgary, said the pandas’ tenure at the zoo would promote tourism between the two countries and create a foundation for investment and economic diversification.
In 2016, there were 135,000 Chinese tourists to Alberta and Gao said he hopes 2018 will see more than 200,000 visits.
“I think this is going to be good news for Alberta tourism and related industries,” he said.
Calgary Zoo president and CEO Clément Lanthier said the panda exhibit fits within the attraction’s three ideological pillars: supporting animal welfare, conservation and tourism.
“We are proactively invested in the science and reintroduction of an endangered species,” Lanthier said. “It is about walking the talk; we cannot expect communities abroad to look after animals in their environment if we are not operating our zoo the best way we can.”
Kim Titchener with Bear Safety and More spoke about the importance of education and public outreach when it comes to keeping wildlife safe in a tourism context.
The eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies, including the Bow and Kananaskis valleys, sees multiple priorities overlap on the landscape – from conservation of species like grizzly bears to visitor experience for millions of visitors that come to the area each year.
“We are seeing more and more people going into these areas where wildlife live and moving into their habitat … with more people going here we are going to see more conflict,” Titchener said. “We are doing things we shouldn’t be doing with wildlife, but education and training can be really key to reducing these conflicts.”
When it comes to grizzly bear conservation in Alberta, she said some of the challenges include where on the landscape the species can be found and the fact they can become habituated to humans.
She pointed to research that female grizzlies and their cubs select habitat close to roads and town sites like Banff, using these areas as buffers from larger more predatory bears.
But Titchener said there is only so much animals can take when it comes to being on display. Adding they are also attracted to altered landscapes where food can be more plentiful at certain times of year.
“Wildlife can only take so many people,” she said. “We do know over time every animal has a capacity for what it can take and they will choose to go other places.”
What causes Titchener concern these days is the idea of a tourist being injured or killed while trying to get the perfect shot, or selfie, with a wild animal. She pointed to an incident at the beginning of May in India where a man was mauled to death by a bear in just such a circumstance.
“These are the things we are seeing in our parks,” she said. “These ego-driven, ego-centric behaviours to get a picture, to get a video, or see yourself with an animal. Is this respectful to wildlife? Does it send a message of safety or connection with wildlife? It doesn’t and we need to change that.”
Titchener said parks and protected areas have been underfunded in the past when it comes to education, research and enforcement. Without funding in those areas, it would be challenging to address those issues.
