Alberta officials are currently investigating several instances of illegal poaching involving the killing of grizzly bears. The Alberta Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Services are looking into four incidents where grizzly bears were unlawfully shot and killed at different locations. One bear was discovered dead on September 30 along a road, approximately 20 kilometers north of Swan Hills near Edmonton. The following day, another grizzly was found deceased in a remote area between Little Smoky and Fox Creek, with all four paws missing. These cases follow previous incidents of two grizzly bears being shot dead in June near Sundre and another bear found dead in March due to a gunshot wound.
Poaching grizzly bears has been prohibited in Alberta since 2006, except for Indigenous hunters permitted to hunt for subsistence or cultural reasons. The authorities urge anyone with information on these poaching incidents or other wildlife offenses to report them through the Report-A-Poacher line or online at alberta.ca/report-poacher. The province’s Report-A-Poacher program offers cash rewards to individuals providing information leading to charges.
Gordon Stenhouse, a prominent biologist involved in grizzly bear population research in Alberta, expressed disappointment at the recent poaching incidents, emphasizing the disrespect shown towards these threatened species. Stenhouse suggested that the discovered cases of poached bears likely represent only a fraction of the actual occurrences.
University of Alberta ecology professor Mark Boyce mentioned the existence of a black market for grizzly bear parts, emphasizing the illegality of both poaching and trading in such items. Kim Titchener, founder of Bear Safety and More, highlighted the underlying conflict between humans and bears in sharing the landscape and emphasized the need for better co-existence strategies rather than resorting to killing bears.
The Alberta government’s efforts to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts and reduce grizzly bear deaths include investments in deterrent measures like electric fencing and BearSmart programs. The province estimates a current grizzly bear population of around 1,000 in Alberta, with the last population study conducted in 2018.