Wildlife experts are using DNA analysis to determine if grizzly bear 130, one of the bears in Banff National Park fitted with a GPS collar for research purposes, is the daughter of famed grizzly bear 64.
Bear 64, a grizzly bear thought to have died of natural causes in 2013, had two known litters of cubs during her 25 years. Wildlife experts, however, have long suspected she may have had a third set of cubs during a time there was a knowledge gap from 2001-06.
A Parks Canada wildlife expert believes bear 130 may have been part of that earlier litter, particularly because bear 130’s home range has overlap with the same areas bear 64 used when she was alive.
“My theory – and it’s my gut theory – is that 130 is possibly a former offspring of 64. The timing logically works out,” said Steve Michel, human-wildlife conflict specialist for Banff National Park.
“When you look at it from a behavioural and home range standpoint, it’s really common for a female grizzly to use a good portion of the mother’s home range and that’s exactly what we see with 130 and 64.”
Bear 64 was first captured as part of a research project in 1999 and it was determined at that time that she had probably not yet had cubs. In the following years she has produced two litters of cubs for sure, possibly three.
In 2006, she emerged from the den with three cubs, but one died within the first year of unknown causes.
The other two separated from their mother in 2009 when they were three-and-a-half years old. Both of those female cubs have since been killed. Bear 109 was hit on the train tracks in 2010 and bear 108 was killed on the highway the following year.
Through remote video cameras and staff observations in June 2010, wildlife officials knew 64 was spending a lot of time with several male grizzly bears, and one in particular. She came out of her den the following winter with three cubs.
Two of those offspring, now identified as male bear 144 and female bear 148, were last spring fitted with GPS collars as part of the joint Canadian Pacific Railway-Parks Canada study to try to prevent ongoing deaths of bears on the railway line through Banff and Yoho.
Bear 130 is also part of that study.
She’s roughly a 10- to 12-year-old bruin and is quite an elusive and wary bear. She’s had two litters of cubs, but none of her offspring have survived.
In October 2012, 130’s yearling cubs were killed on the train tracks about 10 kilometres west of Banff, and her young-of-year cubs that emerged from the den with her last year are thought to have been killed by male grizzlies.
Bear 130’s home range is similar to bear 64’s.
She uses both sides of the Bow Valley, going back and forth across the Trans-Canada Highway and Canadian Pacific Railway. As well, she travels up to the Healy Pass and Egypt Lake area, and heads up towards 40 Mile and Mystic areas.
“We are submitting a number of DNA samples to the lab,” said Michel. “We will have that question addressed at some point, to see what relationship there is between 64 and 130, if any,” Michel said.
