I just got this email sent to me by a fellow member of BC wildlife, it is very informative and all true:

Grizzly Bear Fact Sheet

1. Grizzly Bear Numbers

The current conservative population estimate is 17,000 grizzly bears in British Columbia.

These figures have been established through extensive inventory work by grizzly bear scientists and researchers in representative areas throughout the province.

Estimating the number of bears in the province is not a simple process. Although they are a large, imposing animal, they are also secretive and often nocturnal and  their typical habitat makes sightings difficult or even impossible.

Early estimates of grizzly bear populations were based on reports from the field; loggers, hunters, outfitters and others who inhabited the backcountry. Based on this limited information, biologists were extremely conservative, with their 1979 estimate being 6,000 bears.

In the 1980s studies using emerging technology such as radio-telemetry, capture-recapture and more detailed habitat analysis resulted in the population estimate updated to 13,000 bears province-wide. While developing this estimate, biologists continued to significantly underestimate the carry capacity of the more productive grizzly bear habitats.

Beginning in the 1990s, DNA analysis became a new valuable tool for research biologists and used in conjunction with existing inventory procedures resulted in the grizzly bear population estimates being adjusted once again upwards to the current levels.

It must be noted that the figures used are, and have always been, conservative estimates based on the analysis of the studies done by qualified and experienced researchers.

In the past, anti-hunting and anti-use activists have tried to refute the Ministry of Environment’s population figures, saying that there ‘could be’ as few as 4,000 grizzlies in B.C. But there have been no studies done that would give any credibility to these statements. They have no basis in scientific fact.

Grizzly Bear Reproductive Rates:

One of the arguments that we have heard regarding the sustainability of grizzly bear populations is their low reproductive rates.

While mature females produce cubs only every second or third year, what is not mentioned is that the cubs have a much higher survival rate than the young of most other large mammals. This is partly due to the simple fact that the big bears are at the top of the food chain and have few predatory threats as well as the extreme protective nature of the female grizzly toward her cubs. The key to the reproductive success of grizzly bears populations is that is that grizzly bear females are excellent mothers.

Studies that have been done in British Columbia’s Flathead area as well as in Alaska’s coastal and interior regions have documented that grizzly bear populations are capable of showing a 6% to 8% annual increase or higher. This brings into focus the fact that population growth is reliant on both the birth and death rates of a species. 

Grizzly Bear Hunting Statistics:

One of the arguments from groups and individuals whose goal is to completely ban all hunting of grizzly bears in British Columbia is that the bears are at risk because they are being overhunted.

To understand this issue, you must first be familiar with British Columbia’s hunting regulations and the fact that all grizzly bear hunting in B.C. is conducted through a Limited Entry Hunting (LEH) system where the number of hunters in any specific area is limited through a lottery system. In this manner wildlife managers can control the number of bears taken by licensed hunters in specifically defined geographic areas  through the number of permits that are issued.

Grizzly bear mortalities are analyzed by Ministry of Environment biologists through a detailed procedures manual (http://wlapwww.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/gb_harvest_mgmt_proc_app1.pdf) that defines what limits must be placed on total human caused mortality of grizzly bears as well as a factor for unknown mortality. These limits vary depending on the assessed quality of the bear habitat in any given Management Unit (MU).

These mortality limits range from a maximum of 5% of the total estimated population in the very best habitat to a low of 3% in the lowest habitat class. Further adjustments are made based on the number of mortalities of female grizzlies in any given Wildlife Management Unit (MU).

Using the current estimated population figure of 17,000 grizzly bears the percentage of grizzly bears killed by all licensed hunters since 2002 is as follows:

 year  percentile of herd  number of grizzlys killed

2002      1.26%                      214

2003      1.35%                      229

2004      1.59%                      270

2005      1.54%                      262

2006       1.46%                      248

These figures are indicative of the conservative harvest rates that have been set by the Ministry Environment professional staff considering bear harvest rates could be established as at least two or three times as high.

Facts on Hunting

One of the arguments for removing grizzly bears from the list of huntable wildlife is that this will automatically give them the protection that they need to increase or at least maintain their population numbers. Although this may appear at first hearing to be an unassailable argument, it is not necessarily so.

If grizzly bears are totally protected – in fact if any species is totally protected – it disappears off the radar of public accountability. The bears will cease to have a positive economic value in most jurisdictions. Groups that insist on maintaining an opportunity to harvest the bear are also the groups that are willing to provide funding for research. This will not continue.

Grizzly bears will certainly still have value in areas where commercial bear-viewing operations are in place, but those are mostly in accessible coastal areas where the big bears congregate during salmon runs. In the interior of the province grizzlies are much more secretive, covering relatively large territories and living in heavy cover and are not conducive the commercial viewing operations. In these areas the grizzly will have little to no economic value and will in many situations assume the status of vermin. It will take us back to a time when ranchers encouraged their employees to kill every bear they encountered in their work.

Without hunting, grizzly bears become emboldened and begin not only to interact destructively with property and livestock but also to become a safety hazard for individuals and communities requiring expensive control measures which result in wasteful agency-caused bear deaths.

It is worth noting that in National Parks where grizzly bears, along with all other species, have complete protection and have lost their wariness and have become habituated to human settlement, grizzly bear populations have significantly lower survival rates compared to bears outside of the parks’ boundaries. This is also true of the areas in the US where grizzly bears are protected compared to adjacent areas in British Columbia where they are hunted.

General:

The guiding rule of wildlife management in British Columbia is that it is based on scientific principles. Decisions should not be made on personal philosophies or emotional perspectives.

This is not what the people who are calling for the end to British Columbia’s grizzly bear hunt want to hear. Although they couch their arguments in pseudo-scientific terms and maintain that their chief concern is conservation, their primary goal is to stop hunting.

They know that they would be unsuccessful were they to attack hunting in general and instead have tried to pick battlegrounds where they hope they can generate some emotional appeal with the general public.

In the late 1990s led by one specific anti hunting group, many in the environmental community supported a major effort to ban all bear hunting, including the hunt for black bears. They were successful in having the government of the day impose a grizzly bear hunting moratorium until a newly elected provincial government reexamined their arguments in the light of the existing biological science and found their claims unfounded. This ill advised initiative collapsed on them because they could not convince British Columbians that bears – both black and grizzly - were at risk of being exterminated by legal hunting seasons.

They have now regrouped and refocused their new initiative on stopping the grizzly bear hunt in B.C. and see the upcoming Winter Olympics as an opportunity to blackmail the Provincial government into acquiescing to their demands.

If we give in to this initiative regarding grizzly bears, their demands will not stop there. They will then move on to the next step in their agenda, which is to stop or at least limit all resource use in this province.

With over 13% of the province in protected areas and more than 90 percent of it unsuitable for permanent human settlement, grizzly bears area in a secure position to survive long into the future with hunting being an integral and important part of their conservation and management.

John B Holdstock
Kelowna, BC
jbholdstock@shawcable.com
https://totalrecoil.wordpress.com/

http://www.bcwf.bc.ca/
http://www.bccf.com/

**********************

Thank you very much John for putting together this great resource sheet, I hope everyone will take time to write their local MLA, or other political leader and discuss the facts of grizzly bear hunting, not the emotion of a fuzzy animal being killed.

Here is a report from the Vancouver Province Newspaper on banning bear hunting:

By: Elaine O’Connor
Vancouver Province
March 17, 2009
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Groups+call+bear+hunt/1399593/story.html

Imagine the Great Bear Rainforest without bears.

That’s what B.C. First Nations and environmental groups asked the public to do Tuesday as they launched a campaign to end grizzly and black bear trophy hunting.

“It’s not a hunt. And it’s not trophy hunting. It’s slaughtering,” said Arnie Bellis, vice-president of the Council of the Haida Nation, speaking at a press conference at Simon Fraser University.

In 2007, 430 grizzly bears were killed in B.C. — 87 per cent by sport hunters.

“It doesn’t make economic sense, it doesn’t make biologic sense. It’s damaging B.C.’s bears, but it is also damaging B.C.’s reputation,” Ian McAllister, a conservationist with Pacific Wild, said of the practice.

B.C. bears are in the middle of a battle between First Nations communities, who have set up eco-tourism businesses that take tourists to photograph the bears, and B.C.’s guide outfitter industry, which take hunters to kill the bears.

Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations Turning Point Initiative, said the government must manage bears to promote sustainable tourism.

“This is not a sustainable industry,” Sterritt said of trophy hunting. “It is jeopardizing the sustainable industries we are trying to create.”

Environment Minister Barry Penner said the ministry was taking action by expanding protections.

“We are setting aside a further 475,000 hectares where grizzly bear hunting will not be allowed and a further 170,000 hectares where black bear hunting will not be allowed,” he said Tuesday.

The new closures will take effect in June and bring the total area closed to grizzly hunting to 1.9 million hectares.

Scott Ellis of the Guide Outfitters Association of B.C. said bear hunting brings in $120 million a year, $2.5 million generated from guided grizzly bear hunts alone, which charge up to $20,000 per trip.

He said a moratorium would hurt B.C.’s 230 guide businesses.

“Bear hunting, in spring specifically, is a very important part of our businesses. Without bear hunting many wouldn’t be viable.”

The Environment Ministry estimates there are approximately 16,000 grizzly bears and up to 160,000 black bears in B.C.

— with files from Suzanne Fournier

I personally disagree with banning any form of hunting especailly if it is scientifically viable and an economic advantage. People have to take the emotion out of the equation and realize that hunting is a part of our heritage and grizzly bears are not endagered in BC.

I have been studying maps, google earth, and practicing my shooting at the range all for my spring grizzly hunt in the B.C. interior. During this time I have also been playing with the Federal Ammunition website to find the optimal grizzly round for my .300 Winchester Magnum. I am sold on the Barnes TSX bullets because of their design and penetration so I was trying to find what  the optimal weight would be for grizzly hunting. The Federal website was very helpful as you can choose what game your hunting with what caliber you are using and it gives you recommendations in which you can compare to find the right combination. For my situation, using a .300WM on a grizzly bear, required a few 180grain and 200 grain options. I narrowed it to the Barnes TSX180 grain, Barnes MRX 180grain, and the Barnes 200 grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw. I found that the 180 grain MRX bullet had the most velocity (fps) and energy (ft-lbs) at all different ranges. Besides, I like the Barnes MRX bullet design better than the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, even though the latter has killed multiple brown bears I am sure.

So now I just need to pick up a few boxes of the 180grain Barnes MRX in Federal Vital Shok, and sight in with the new rounds!

I also have to buy some bullets for my backup: .458Win Mag 400 grain Federal Vital Shok Trophy Bonded Bear Claw rounds. I do not look forward to trying them out, as that gun has some kick!

Now every time I hear about grizzly bear hunting it is always left wing political lobbiests that are trying to ban grizzly bear hunting and other types of bear hunting. All this negative public image of bear hunting is making me sick, it is just the first way in the door for anti-hunting groups to gain a stronghold in mainstream society. I would like people to use common sense and think of the immense benefits of grizzly bear and black bear hunting brings to our ecological and financial environments. Here is the latest group to push the anti hunting propaganda message: http://www.pacificwild.org/

I encourage all hunters and true outdoors men and women to write to their political parties to issue concern on the above group.

Who else besides bear hunters contribute funds into grizzly bear and black bear conservation and research?

How else are bears going to respect boundaries and urban environments if they lose their fear of man due to lack of hunting pressure?

Just remeber that bear management is better for the herd and only 6% of the grizzly population is taken annualy and if more females are taken or missing that alloted, the tags are decreased the following year to keep numbers up.

Here are some other sites to check out:

http://www.cloudline.org/

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/grzz/

http://www.bearsinbc.com/pages/02grizzly/02myths.html

Hi All, just giving everyone a heads up that "The Black Bear Hunting Encyclopedia" DVD and book will be available on March 25th 2009 here:

http://www.black-bear-hunting.com/

just giving everyone fair warning that this product is in high demand and will not last long as it is a limited edition run, so reserve your copies on the website before the launch so you dont miss out on this action packed bear hunting DVD and book.

The DVD and book cover all aspects of bear hunting from information about the animal, scouting, equipment, hunting tactics, archery, rifle, baiting, spot and stalk, field care, taxidermy, recipes, and multiple stories.

Since I drew that spring grizzly tag I went out to the range to practice my shooting and also have a chance to work up a load with my .300 wm Weatherby Vangauard.

I had some good success with the IMR 4350 powder getting 4 shots inside 1 M.O.A shooting off of a single front rest.

all in all I was happy with the shooting as all the groups were more than acceptable. I still plan on doing some more shooting and working up some more loads.

I am going to talk to the game warden and biologist for the area I got my grizzly draw in to see if I can get some more information. I also have a friend that was successful last year in that area so maybe he will share some advice with me.

I just found out I drew a 2009 spring Grizzly bear hunt open from April 1-June 10 2009 in the Quesnel highlands around Horsefly in British Columbia Canada. I am extremely excited and will be starting to do the preparitory scouting, talking to biologists, and shooting practice. I will keep you updated in new developments and lets hope for a successful trip!

I was on youtube and a friend showed me this long range shot on a black bear. I am just wondering if this is responsible hunting. I know the guys doing the shooting were highly skilled and had the right technical equipment as you can see in the video but it still seems like a stretch to kill game at that distance due to variables. I wonder if the bear could have moved before the gun shot and the bullet reached him? I am very fascinated at the skill required to take an animal at that distance but I am still on the fence wether or not it is a good practice to get into. I would love to recieve the training and practice to be able to do long range shooting like that but I would not do it unless I was 100% confident that i would not wound the game. Check out this: kill zone chart for black bears if you want to see the small room for error required at that yardage.

The trailer is finished for my black bear hunting dvd. be sure to check it out and leave a comment on youtube.

you can also check out my www.black-bear-hunting.com site for details.

Maryland emailed me this note and asked to post it:

2008 Maryland’s Black Bear Hunting Lottery is Underway - See what
hunters say!

Maryland’s Black Bear Lottery is now through September 1, 2008. You can
participate by going to: http://blackbear.dnr.state.md.us/

We put together an online guide to hunting black bear in Maryland and
other useful information in response to many requests from hunters like
yourself. This information will give you the basics of bear hunting in
Maryland and may be helpful to you if you have never bear hunted before
or if you are trying to encourage a friend to participate. Visit
Maryland Black Bear Hunting Section of the Maryland Hunter’s Guide:
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/huntersguide/BlackBearHunt.asp

Want to see what last year’s hunters said? Visit:
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/huntersguide/bb_hunt_testimonials.asp

Have a great hunting season this year!

eGov and Online Services Manager
Maryland Department of Natural Resources