Parks Canada plans to capture and collar more grizzly bears this spring as part of a project to stop the ongoing deaths of the threatened species on the train tracks in Banff and Yoho national parks.
Five grizzlies still had functioning GPS collars when they headed into the den last fall, but two of the high-tech tracking devices will be removed this spring because they are nearing the end of their lifespan. Several other collars malfunctioned for varying reasons.
Wildlife officials say the intent of the project is to maintain 10 to 12 functioning collars on air at any given time, but they don’t want to subject individual bears to the stressful immobilization process any more than twice over the course of the study, unless necessary.
They say they are looking at the possibility of capturing and collaring black bears, plus expanding trapping efforts in other areas where they have not see as much success, including Yoho National Park.
“Ideally, we would like to get back into the range of 10 to 12 grizzly bears on air, but we know that’s a big, tall order,” said David Gummer, a wildlife biologist with Banff National Park.
The GPS collaring project is part of the overall $1 million, five-year Parks Canada-Canadian Pacific Railway joint action plan to try to prevent ongoing deaths of grizzly bears on the train tracks through Banff and Yoho national parks.
Trains are the single biggest killer of grizzly bears in Banff National Park. There have been 14 known grizzly bear deaths on the railway in Banff and Yoho since 2000, but that number does not take into account bears that may be struck but never found.
Grizzly bears are considered a threatened species in Alberta, with estimates there are fewer than 700 grizzlies province-wide. In Banff National Park, there are estimated to be about 60 bears.
This is year three of the four-year collaring project. Parks Canada recovered 16,000 GPS locations from 12 different grizzly bears last year, and in 2012 collected more than 19,000 locations from 11 bears.
Gummer said the collaring project aims to understand patterns of use by bears on the railway and factors that contribute to mortality risk, but it also provides valuable information for such projects as an upcoming prescribed burn in the Sawback region.
“The primary driver for the collaring is to better understand the factors that put bears at risk on the railway and to help inform what we can start to do about it in terms of real mitigations on the ground,” Gummer said.
Bears are captured in baited culvert traps or by free-range darting. Snowy weather prevented wildlife experts from starting to trap as planned on April 1, but they hope to begin soon, now that the weather is warming, and continue trapping into May and June.
In the two previous trapping seasons, black bears have been inadvertently caught and then released.
The black bear population in the parks is unknown, though the Bow Valley has long been referred to as a mortality sink for black bears, and 33 bears have died on the train tracks since 2000 in Banff and Yoho parks.
Gummer said it is hoped they will be able to put collars on black bears, too, although that proposal has not been given final approval and is under review to make sure it meets animal care and welfare standards.
“It would give us better representation of bear use of the railway in those areas where we have gaps,” he said, noting they could compare grizzly and black bear behaviour and use of the railway.
“It might help us in the long run come up with mitigations for both species, not just grizzly bears.”
Three female grizzlies and two males are currently fitted with high-tech collars, but collars on the two male bruins would be removed this spring because they are nearing the end of their lifespan. The GPS collars have a blow-off mechanism as part of the design, allowing wildlife officials to remotely remove the collar at any time from a distance.
One of those bears is bear 128, now a sub-adult male bear orphaned when its mother was run over on the train tracks near Lake Louise in 2011. The whereabouts of 128’s sibling is unknown.
Bear 128 continues to hang around busy and developed areas near Lake Louise, and last year was repeatedly seen feeding on grain on the train tracks and also got access to human garbage at the Lake Louise campground.
Gummer said bear 128, which has been handled a couple of times previously to be fitted with a collar and ear transmitters, may or may not be fitted with another collar.
“We realized, depending on other considerations, like if animals are posing particular management challenges, or if there are exceptional circumstances, we might,” he said.
“For example, if the Lake Louise staff need to keep close tabs on that animal they may need to decide to collar again.”
Gummer said it is unlikely bear 64, a female bear dubbed the matriarch of the Bow Valley, and bear 122, the large dominant male in the park, would be immobilized and fitted with collars again.
Bear 64 was last spotted on Oct. 2, 2013. Three days later, her three 2 -year-old offspring were seen eating grass on the outskirts of town and hanging out in a residential yard off Springs Crescent, but there was no sign of their celebrity mom.
Resource conservation officials can’t say for sure what has happened to 64, whether she is alive or simply kicked her cubs out early and went off on her own, but they are hopeful the 24-year-old bear will show up later this spring.
“We are hoping we will see her this spring doing well, but it’s too hard to speculate on whether she’s still around or not,’ said Gummer. “My understanding is she has been immobilized a number of times and we would probably refrain from collaring her again unless absolutely necessary.”
Bear 122, who first made local headlines when he feasted on steak bones and cobs of corn at the Castle Mountain landfill in 2012, has also gone under immobilization a couple of times.
That massive bear garnered attention last summer after hunting and eating a black bear on a busy trail near Banff’s Sundance Canyon, feasting on an elk at Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park, then feasting on an elk carcass in November just upriver of the Banff townsite.
Gummer said it is unlikely bear 122 would be immobilized again.
“It’s hard to speculate, but at this time we would think of him in a similar situation as 64,” he said. “We would really refrain from collaring unless there’s a particular event or need to.”
The issue of railway-related wildlife mortality is complex. It can include the presence of grain, bear behaviour, using the tracks as a travel route, and conditions adjacent to the railway such as seasonal bear foods, habitat quality, carcasses, terrain, travel conditions and snow conditions.
Other projects as part of the Parks Canada-CPR joint action plan include vegetation clearing, investigation of off-site enhancements like fire to draw bears away from tracks, grain taste aversion trials and the use of video to determine bear behaviour ahead of oncoming trains.
The plan also speaks to the development of test fences at certain hot spots.
